Pantelis Karasevdas
Gold medal, April 9, 1896, Pantelis Karasevdas, army rifle, 200m. Athens 1896
Army rifle shooting at a distance of 200m was the first shooting competition at the Olympic Games and was held at the Kallithea shooting range. The participation was very large and the total number of athletes reached 42, coming from seven countries. The preliminary rounds were held in the morning and the final in the afternoon. According to the rules, each shooter had 40 shots, which were shot in four groups of ten. From the very beginning, the superiority of the Greek champions in this competition was evident, which resulted in Greece taking not only the first three places, but a total of six in the top eight. The winner was Pantelis Karasevdas from Astakos, who collected 2320 points, followed by Pavlos Pavlidis with 1978 and Nikolaos Trikoupis with 1713 points.
The final ranking: Karasevdas (Greece) 2320 Pavlidis (Greece) 1978 Trikoupis (Greece) 1713 Metaxas (Greece) 1701 Orphanidis (Greece) 1698 Jensen (Denmark) 1640 Diamantis (Greece) 1456 Baumann (Switzerland) 1294
They said..
“In my native land, like everyone else, I sometimes went hunting. The first bird I shot with the first rifle was a sparrow. But I owe this victory to the Academic Club, if it didn’t exist, I wouldn’t have participated today and wouldn’t have won”
April 9, 1896
