A PISTOL DUEL - FORGOTTEN PAGES OF OLYMPIC HISTORY

A pistol duel also known as the "Fast gun" is one of lesser-known disciplines, which has became part of the Olympic history. This kind of sport originated from a fatal tradition of defending the honor and dignity that had been respected by noble men of our glorious past. For competitions in this discipline had been used cartridges with reduced charge of gunpowder and bullets of wax. A duel participants were wearing masks to protect the face while their pistols were equipped with shields to protect hands.

First competitions in the fast gun - shooting at a distance of 25 meters was conducted in 1906 at the Olympic games in Athens, and then at the games in London in 1908. The last one took place in 1912 at Stockholm's Olympics. 

Interestingly, that at the Olympics of 1912 there were three Ukrainians among the duelists, they had competed for the team of Russian Empire. These three were - Mykola Melnitsky (a silver medalist in shooting 30 meters) from Kyiv, Grigory Shesterikow from Zhitomir and Georgiy Panteleymonov from Balta. All three were military personnel, mr. Melnitsky, in addition, was a military pilot.