New Delhi, May 6 Austria’s Martin Strempfl beat Lucas Kozeniesky of USA 2-1 to enter the final of the TOPGUN online shooting competition after an intense battle.

Martin, an Olympic quota winner, awaits the shooter who will prevail in the second semifinal between reigning Olympic champion Ginny Thrasher of USA and Serbia’s Milenko Sebic on Thursday.

At the start of the match, the odds were in favour of Lucas after a close win against Martin’s teammate, Berhard Pickl. But it seemed the high-voltage match had taken a toll on the world No. 3 as he failed to maintain the fluency he had displayed at the start.

Martin was not below par in the first match, but Lucas simply raised the bar to a level his opponent could not match.

Even though Lucas wrapped it up easily at 10-3, there was ample proof of the pedigree of the two shooters. On three occasions, the two men matched each other with similar scores.

The competition is organised by former India shooter Shimon Sharif.

It was as if roles got reversed in the second match as Martin stepped up admirably with two 10.8s and a perfect 10.9. It was the experience of competing in online competitions since last year that came handy for the tall Austrian.

For the Austrian camp, it was a revenge of sorts for a narrow loss in the last quarterfinal.

Happy to make the final, an elated Martin termed the match “a great fight” and attributed his win to “keeping at it despite the poor start”.

As for Lucas, he could not rise to the occasion like his opponent.

“I made a few mistakes and lost some points and Martin capitalized on them. It was about pressure also and about how you cope with it and where you end up.” News Source : PTI