Agule and Upelniece reach finals, Vilciņš one point shy of final at European U23 Shooting Championships
Latvian shooters competed on Tuesday at the European U23 Championships in Wroclaw; Kristiāna Agule and Santa Upelniece reached finals, while Daniels Vilciņš missed the final by one point.
At the European U23 Shooting Championships under way in Wroclaw, Poland, Latvian athletes competed Tuesday in air pistol, mixed-team air rifle and skeet events. The standout results of the day came from Kristiāna Agule and Santa Upelniece, who both secured places in finals.
Agule, competing in the women's 10-metre air pistol event, posted 568 points in qualification, taking eighth place and earning a final spot. In the final, she finished seventh in Europe with 130.4 points. Upelniece, shooting in the junior women's skeet competition, hit 111 out of 125 clay targets in qualification, placed seventh and advanced to the final among the eight best athletes.
In junior men's skeet, Raiens Lukass Kukutis produced the best performance among Latvians, hitting 110 of 125 clays for 30th place in a field of 47 shooters. Ričards Zorovs followed with 108 hits in 35th, while Raimonds Ozoliņš placed 42nd with 103 hits. Latvia's team finished 10th among 11 countries with a combined 321 hits.
In women's air pistol, Alise Dvarišķe took 30th with 556 points and Līva Krūmiņa was 34th with 554 points. The Latvian team of Agule, Dvarišķe and Krūmiņa placed sixth in Europe with 1,678 points. On the men's side, Daniels Vilciņš delivered a strong performance in the air pistol qualification, scoring 574 points to take ninth, just one point away from reaching the final. Elvis Pavlovskis was 37th with 554 points, Kārlis Bleidelis 38th with 537 points, and Latvia's men's team 10th with 1,665 points.
The day ended with the mixed-team air rifle event. Latvia's first duo, Anete Tukiša and Linards Dvarišķis, scored 620.4 points in qualification to finish 16th among 19 teams. The second pair, Ieva Pēpule and Miķelis Ercmanis, totaled 611.7 points for 19th place, with Pēpule contributing 305.8 and Ercmanis 305.9. The championship continues, with more Latvian athletes still to compete in several events.
