London 2012 Shooting: Museum piece weapon takes Martynov to gold

Sergei Martynov's decision to use a museum piece weapon paid off Friday when his Soviet-era gun allowed him to hit a perfect score and clinch Olympic gold in the 50m rifle prone event.

The 44-year-old Belarus veteran, competing in his sixth Olympic Games after making his first appearance way back in 1988, secured the first gold medal of his long career ahead of Belgium's Lionel Cox and Rajmond Debevec of Slovenia.

He also notched a record maximum 600 points en route to the final but denied he disliked using modern equipment.

"I am not prejudiced about any rifle and rounds, but for the Olympics you are going to choose something you are comfortable with," he said after revelling in the accuracy of his Soviet rifle.

"I admit my equipment is old but why fix what is not broken? If you have something that worked for you and yields results, why change it?"

Leuris Pupo won Cuba's first gold medal of the 2012 Olympics when he claimed the men's 25m rapid fire pistol final.

India's Vijay Kumar took silver while Feng Ding of China clinched bronze.

World champion Alexei Klimov of Russia finished off the podium despite having shot a perfect score of 600 in the qualifying round.

"This is the height of glory for the people of Cuba, for my family and for all those who helped me to get this medal," said Pupo.

"Its a wonderful thing. This is Cuba's first gold in shooting, although we had several bronze medals."