The Lengdorfer is already looking forward to the European Games.
Lengdorf/Tallinn – The flight to Estonia for the European Compressed Air Championship was really worth it for Maxi Dallinger.
Lengdorfer, 26, returned with a bronze medal in the air rifle team competition.
In singles he reached the final and finished fifth.
It just didn't quite work out in mixed.
But that wasn't so dramatic, says Dallinger.
The mixed is generally seen more as a competition "in which you can get a taste of the week and get a feel for the place and the competition".
Nevertheless, his performance – he finished 25th together with Larissa Weindorf – was simply not good enough.
“It was a pity, especially for my partner, who was very good in the competition.
But my result wasn't good enough for the final.”
That should change in the individual competition.
His performance with the air rifle has been consistently good this season anyway, "but 629.4 points in the qualification is a pretty good result even for a European Championship," says Dallinger.
He ended up fifth best in the final of the top eight.
Even better was Maxi Ulbrich, who set a new German record with 633.4 points and later also won the European Championship title.
In the final, the top eight each shoot series of five, after which the last one is eliminated.
Dallinger did a 9.2 and was briefly in last position, then fought his way back up the field.
He showed good nerves when it came to a jump-off against a Croatian shooter, was even in fourth place for a short time and finally finished the competition in fifth place, which brings him further world ranking points - and probably also the ticket for the European Games, which this year in Poland take place.
“In any case, it looks very good,” says the state police officer.
But there was still a competition in Tallinn.
Together with European Champion Ulbrich and David Koenders, Dallinger competed in the team competition.
In the prelim (30 shots) he had the best result of the trio with 314.7 points, which was enough for fourth place.
This meant that the gold match, which the two best teams contest, was missed.
But the EM mode wants it so that the third and sixth place shoot out a bronze medal and the fourth and fifth place shoot out the second.
It was against Ukraine and it was exciting up to 9:9.
But then only the Germans scored and immediately converted the first match ball to 15:9 - the perfect end to a very successful European Championship for Germany.
With Ulbrich's European Championship title, DSSB air rifle shooters have secured a quota for the 2024 Olympics.
The competitions in Estonia were very demanding, also in terms of the time span.
There was no time at all for sightseeing, "but I was here at the Junior European Championships in 2016," he explains.
The focus was completely on the sport.
In the morning at 11 a.m. we went to the shooting range.
“And the final was only at 7:30 p.m.
That takes a lot of time.” Dallinger is now looking forward to “a few days break”.
But of course he wants more.
The European Games would be great, he says, “even if we shoot in Wroclaw and won't see much of the rest of the games in Kraków.
But I'm sure that on a non-competitive day we'll take the chance and go to Kraków."
Good nerves in the singles final
Ticket for Poland as good as certain
