Yevgeny Petrov

As one of the best Soviet skeet shooters of all time Yevgeny Petrov was a national, European, World, and Olympic champion. Petrov represented the Moskva All-Army Military Hunting Society, winning five Soviet titles from 1962 to 1972. At his first appearance at the World Shooting Championships, he won a team silver in 1962, followed by another team silver four years later. Petrov then won six consecutive team golds from 1967 to 1973, as well as an individual gold in 1970. His record at the European Championships was equally impressive, with him taking home five team golds and four individual silver medals from 1966 to 1973.

In 1968 Petrov represented the Soviet Union in the skeet event at the Mexico City Olympics. After the eighth and final round he was tied on 198 points out of a possible 200 with Romano Garagnani (ITA) and Konrad Wirnhier (FRG). All three men then contested a shoot-off to determine the medals, with Petrov being the only one to shoot a clean round to win gold. After another shoot-off, Garagnani won silver, with Wirnhier settling for bronze. Four years later Petrov returned to the Olympics for the München Games where he once again went to a shoot-off for the medals, this time with Wirnhier and Michael Buchheim (GDR). Wirnhier made up for his disappointment in Mexico to win gold with a perfect round, with Petrov missing just one target to win silver, and Buchheim taking bronze.

One year later Petrov retired from active competition and turned to coaching. His first major coaching assignment came in 1976 when he was the head coach of the Soviet team at the Montréal Olympics. Later, he was also the coach of the Unified Team at the 1992 Games in Barcelona. In addition to teaching and coaching in Russia, Petrov also worked in Germany as the director of their international sports shooting academy.