Tanju Kirjakov

Tanju Kirjakow ( Bulgarian Таню Киряков , English transcription Tanyu Kiryakov ; born March 2, 1963 in Russe ) is a Bulgarian sports shooter and is considered one of the world's most successful pistol shooters .

Life

Kirjakov, who started shooting at the age of 14 and was trained by his father Christo, graduated from Sofia University with a degree in sports.

In Seoul in 1988 he took part in the Olympic Games for the first time and moved into the Olympic final in the air pistol discipline as third place after the preliminary fight. There he managed to catch up with the American Erich Buljung, who was leading after the preliminary battle, five rings and to draw level with him. Since the final result is rated higher, Kirjakov was Olympic champion.

Four years later, at the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 , Kirjakov experienced a debacle. In the free pistol discipline , he was the leader after the preliminary battle. In the final, he only hit the seven with his fifth shot. Annoyed, he tossed his pistol on the shelf with full force. On the sixth shot, the electronic results display showed a zero. He was then assigned a different shooting range, as it was assumed that the two bad shots were the result of a defective target system. He was also allowed to repeat the last shot, but since this shot was also displayed as zero on the new stand, the cause was not a defective stand, but a shifted sight after the pistol hit the rest. Kirjakow then gave up the competition.

In Atlanta 1996 Kirjakow won the bronze medal with the air pistol, after he was in 4th place after the preliminary fight, but could still move up to 3rd place thanks to a good final result.

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics , Kirjakov won his second gold medal, this time with the free pistol.

Sporting successes

Olympic games

	discipline	space
Seoul 1988	Free pistol	4th
	Air pistol	1.
Barcelona 1992	Free pistol	8th.
	Air pistol	7th
Atlanta 1996	Free pistol	20th
	Air pistol	3.
Sydney 2000	Free pistol	1.
	Air pistol	8th.
Athens 2004	Free pistol	7th
	Air pistol	4th
Beijing 2008	Free pistol	6th
	Air pistol	9.

literature

• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. Chronicle IV. Seoul 1988 - Atlanta 1996. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-328-00830-6 .
• Ragnar Skanaker , Laslo Antal: Sporting pistol shooting . Motorbuch, ISBN 3-613-01425-4