Rio De Janeiro, April 19 (IANS): Russia's Vladimir Maslennikov recovered from a poor start to win his first shooting World Cup series gold medal in the men's 10-metre air rifle event.

Maslennikov, who dropped to seventh early in the competition, put on a display of precision shooting to end the final with 207 points, one point ahead of China's Cao Yifei here on Monday, reports Xinhua.

The Russian secured the victory by scoring 10.9 with his penultimate shot after Cao fired a 10.8.

Maslennikov's compatriot Sergey Kamenskiy took bronze with 184.5 points.

"That 10.9 shot was crucial," Maslennikov said on Monday.

"If I hadn't matched my rival's great shot, I would have been in trouble," Maslennikov said.

"I'm glad for me and for Sergey. He's not only my team-mate, he's also my friend, and we'll go to the Olympics together."

Germany's Julian Justus finished in the fourth place, ahead of China's Yang Haoran, who was fifth with 141.4 points, and Bulgaria's Anton Rizov, who ended up sixth with 121.2 points.

Italy's Niccolo Campriani, a silver medallist at the 2012 London Olympics, was seventh with 102 points while China's Zhu Qinan, a two-time Olympic medallist, was eighth with 80.0 points.