Miroslav Januš

Miroslav Januš (born 9 August 1972 in Postupice, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech sport shooter.[2] A four-time Olympian (1992 to 2004), Janus is one of Czech Republic's most successful individual shooters in Olympic history, having won a bronze medal in the 10 m running target at Atlanta 1996. Outside his Olympic career, Janus has produced a career record of 120 medals in a major international competition, including fourteen golds at the European Championships, and a total of ten in different color at the Worlds since his debut came as a junior in 1989.[1]

Miroslav Januš
Personal information
Full nameMiroslav Januš
Nationality Czech Republic
Born (1972-08-09) 9 August 1972
Postupice, Czechoslovakia
Height1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight80 kg (176 lb)
Sport
SportShooting
Event(s)10 m running target (10RT)
50 m running target (50RT)
ClubDukla Plzeň[1]
Coached byJán Kermiet[1]
Medal record
Men's shooting
Representing the  Czech Republic
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Olympic Games 0 0 1
World Championships 2 4 3
European Championships 14 9 6
Total 16 13 10
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 1996 Atlanta 10RT
World Championships
Silver medal – second place 1994 Milan 10RTMIX
Silver medal – second place2006 Zagreb50RT
Silver medal – second place 2008 Plzeň 10RT
Silver medal – second place 2009 Vierumäki 10RTMIX
Bronze medal – third place 1994 Milan 50RTMIX
Bronze medal – third place2006 Zagreb10RT
Bronze medal – third place 2008 Plzeň 50RT

Career

Started shooting at the age of fourteen, Janus ascended to prominence in the international scene as part of the former Czechoslovakia team in 1989. By that time, he set a junior world record of 566 in the running target to successfully claim his first ever gold medal at the World Championships in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.[1][3] Janus' early rise continued as he improved his personal best by six points for another Worlds title two years later in Stavanger, Norway. He made his first Czech team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, but failed to reach the final in the inaugural 10 m running target, finishing ninth with a score of 572.[4]

In 1995, Janus reached the peak of his shooting career by breaking a new world record of 685.5 in the running target to earn a gold medal at the ISSF World Cup meet in Seoul, South Korea.[1] Janus' exceptional dominance clearly made him one of the top favorites vying for an Olympic medal at his succeeding Games in Atlanta 1996.[5] Indeed, he progressed to the 10 m running target final with a third seed at 580, and then shot brilliantly a 98.4 in the 10-shot round to give the Czechs an Olympic bronze for a total score of 678.4, trailing the Chinese duo of Yang Ling and Xiao Jun by just a few points.[6][7][8]

The following season, Janus established his new personal best of 685.7 to assert himself with a blazing first-place finish at the 1997 World Cup final in Lugano, Switzerland in addition to his third straight victory from the European Championships, erasing his own record that he previously set two years earlier in Seoul by just a slim tenth of a point margin (0.1).[1]

Heading to his third Olympic Games in Sydney 2000 with confidence and luck, Janus was expected to be an overwhelming medal favorite for the Czechs, but in the 10 m running target, he put up a lackluster effort with a modest 91.8 on the 10-shot series, that shut him out of the podium to last in the eight-man final, accumulating a total score of 666.8. Earlier, Janus shot a slow-running 293 and a wretched 282 on the fast run to get a fifth-seeded score of 575 for the final.[9][10]

The post-Sydney Olympics period sought a real test and a mighty redemption on Janus at the same shooting range two years later for the World Cup series. There, he commanded a robust two-point lead over the Russian tandem of Aleksandr Blinov and World champion Dimitri Lykin to claim the gold with 681.7, and secure an Olympic quota place for the Czech Republic towards his fourth straight Games.[11][12]

Before the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Janus held off a formidable challenge from Lykin to collect another gold in an Olympic test event at Markópoulo Olympic Shooting Centre, as part of the World Cup series, finishing in the lead at 685.5.[13] Upon entering the Games as an Olympic medal favorite, Janus suddenly crashed out of the men's 10 m running target final with a disastrous feat in the qualifying round. He marked a lowly 283 on the slow-target and 281 on the fast run to finish a startling fifteenth out of 19 shooters with a total score of 564, just fourteen points away from the final cutoff.[14][15]

Olympic results
Event 1992 1996 2000 2004
10 metre running target 9th
572		 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Bronze
580+98.4		 8th
575+91.8		 15th
564

References
  1. "ISSF Profile – Miroslav Januš". ISSF. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  2. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Miroslav Januš". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  3. "Střelec Miroslav Januš má rovnou stovku medailí" [Shooter Miroslav Januš wins his straight one hundredth medal] (in Czech). Sport.cz. 22 October 2008. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  4. "Barcelona 1992: Shooting – Men's 10m Running Target" (PDF). Barcelona 1992. LA84 Foundation. p. 343. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  5. "Shooting team set sights on firing Czech Olympic team to Atlanta medal success". The Prague Post. 1 May 1996. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  6. "Atlanta 1996: Shooting – Men's 10m Running Target" (PDF). Atlanta 1996. LA84 Foundation. p. 122. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  7. "Canoeists shooter only Czechs to garner hardware in Atlanta". The Prague Post. 31 July 1996. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  8. "China Regains Some Lost Pride". Los Angeles Times. 31 July 1996. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  9. "Sydney 2000: Shooting – Men's 10m Running Target" (PDF). Sydney 2000. LA84 Foundation. pp. 76–77. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  10. "Ludmila Formanová odstupuje pro zranění, oštěpař Jan Železný se probojoval do sobotního finále" [Ludmila Formanová withdrew due to health reasons, Jan Železný advanced to Saturday finals] (in Czech). Radio Praha. 22 September 2000. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  11. "Střelec Januš vyhrál v Sydney" [Shooter Januš wins in Sydney] (in Czech). Mladá fronta DNES. 18 August 2002. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  12. "Shooting 2004 Olympic Qualification" (PDF). Majority Sports. p. 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  13. "Russia Reigns Supreme at the ISSF World Shooting Cup". Chinese Olympic Committee. 29 April 2004. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  14. "Shooting: Men's 10m Running Target Prelims". Athens 2004. BBC Sport. 15 August 2004. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  15. "Porouchala se mi hlava, říká Januš" ["I broke myself to tears", according to Janus] (in Czech). Mladá fronta DNES. 19 August 2004. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
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