Czech Republic’s Kostelecky won the last match of the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Larnaca, Cyprus, which saw the participation of 490 shooters coming from 77 countries.
Today’s Trap Men final won by the 2008 Olympic Champion David Kostelecky of the Czech Republic closed the 2015 ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Larnaca, Cyprus.
The 39-year old shooter climbed atop of the podium after a breathtaking gold medal match, where he met and beat Turkey’s 27-year old Yavuz Ilnam with a score of 13 to 12 hits. The two athletes shot neck and neck right to the last shot, when Ilnam missed his very last target, leaving the brightest medal to Kostelecky.
2008 Olympic Champion Kostelecky had never won a world cup gold before this season. He made it for the first time at the last world cup stage in Al Ain (UAE), and he repeated himself today, at the Olympic shooting range of Larnaca.
“It’s crazy, I had never won a gold in 20 years, and now I got two back to back. Sometimes life is strange.” Said the Czech champion after the final. “You can’t drop many targets these days, if you want to make it into the final. The results of the competitors are so high that there’s not much room for mistakes. Rio 2016 is the goal for every shooter, now. But that’s still far away, 14 months, you never know what it can happen in between. I am trying to stay focused on this year’s competitions.” He added, speaking about his future plans.
Silver medallist Ilnam celebrated with Kostelecky, in spite of losing the medal match. Indeed, not only he won his very first world cup medal, but he also claimed a Rio 2016 Olympic quota for Turkey. Quite an achievement for the 27-year old athlete ranked 88th in the world, and who had never made it into a final round of a world cup event, before.
The Bronze medal match finished in favour of Croatia’s Josip Glasnovic (31), who beat Finland’s first-time finalist Vesa Tornroos with a net score of 15 to 10 target. As the Croatian shooter had already won an Olympic quota at the last world cup in Al Ain (where he claimed Silver), today’s second Rio 2016 qualification spot went to Finland.
The fourth world cup stage of the year kicked off on here in Larnaca on the 26th of April. 490 shooters coming from 77 countries arrived in Cyprus to compete in the five Olympic shotgun events, trying to secure one of the 10 Rio 2016 Olympic quotas up for grabs.
The competition started off with the Italian flag waiving upon the highest step of the podium, as Diana Bacosi won her second world cup back to back at the Skeet Women final beating China’s Yu Xiumin in the gold medal match. The Skeet Women’s Bronze went to one of the youngest finalists of this year’s ISSF World Cup Series, USA’s Morgan Craft, 21, who shoot her way to the podium by winning a qualification’s shoot-off with 71+6 hits, and then shuttered 14 targets in the semi-final. At the Bronze medal match, she met and defeat Thailand’s Sutia Jiewchaloemmit with a score of 15 to 13 hits, pocketing her very first ISSF world cup medal. Olympic qualification spots went to China and Thailand, as both Italy and USA have already achieved the maximum number of quotas for this event.
The world cup stage continued the following day, on the 27th of April, with the Skeet Men final which saw the success of Saif Bin Futtais of the United Arab Emirates. Bin Futtais claimed the brightest medal as he beat Sweden’s Marcus Svensson with a shoot-off score of 4 to 3 hits, after the Gold medal match where the two tied with 14 hits each. Both the Gold and Silver medallist qualified for Rio 2016. Anton Astakhov of the Russian Federation, participating in his first ISSF world cup final round, secured the Bronze medal beating Great Britain’s Jeremy Harry Bird by 13 to 12 hits in the Bronze medal match. Cyprus medal hope Georgios Achilleos did not make it to the podium, but he equalled the current Skeet Men world record during the qualification phase of the competition, with a perfect score of 125 hits out of 125 targets.
The 2014 ISSF World Championship silver medallist and world’s #6 Antonino Barillà of Italy claimed the Double Trap Men gold on the 29th of April, at the third final match of this world cup in Larnaca. The Italian athlete beat Guatemala’s first-time world cup finalist Enrique Brol – ranked 30th in the world – with 29 hits in the Gold medal match to Brol’s 27. Brol and Bronze medallist Pan Qiang (30) of the People’s Republic of China clinched the two Olympic quotas, as Barillà had already won one at last year’s world championship.
The Trap Women final, conducted yesterday, 2nd of May, turned in favour of Finland, as the 2008 Olympic Champion Satu Makela-Nummela claimed Gold and clinched a Rio 2016 Olympic quota place for her country, beating Tatiana Barsuk of the Russian Federation with a score of 13 to 12 hits. Spain’s Fatima Galvez pocketed the Bronze, beating the Australian first-time finalist Emma Elizabeth Cox at the end of spine-chilling shoot-off. The two athletes tied with 9 hits at the end of the medal match, and then continued shooting in the tie-breaker. They both missed their first three shoot-off targets, and it was the fourth clay to decide the medal in favour of the Spanish shooter.
After five events, the Italian team finished atop of the medals standings, with two Gold medals. The Czech Republic, Finland and the United Arab Emirates placed in second with one Gold medal each. At the same time, the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation finished in the spotlights by securing two Rio 2016 Olympic quota place each, out of the 10 quotas up for grabs here in Larnaca.
The ISSF World Cup Series moves now on to America, as the fifth world cup leg of the year is going to be held in Fort Benning, USA. There, the best rifle and pistol shooters of the world will meet from the 11th through the 19th of May, competing for 24 Olympic quota spots and to collect qualification points for this year’s ISSF World Cup Final.
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