The youngest of the two Perilli sisters achieved her most important victory, besting Slovakia’s Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova and claiming the Trap Women Gold medal at the 2015 ISSF World Cup Final.
After placing 4th at the Olympics, at the ISSF World Championship and in 2014 also at the World Cup Final, San Marino’s 27-year old Alessandra Perilli finally climbed the whole podium, claiming the Gold medal at the ISSF World Cup Final in Nicosia (CYP). The most important Gold of her career so far.
“It is! Absolutely! I had a lot of 4th places, but now I made it. I’m so happy!” Declared an emotional Perilli after the medal match.
“During the last three months I always got good scores while I was training, but in competitions my head was not there.” She continued. “In the last month we changed the stock and revolutionized everything, I trained a lot with my coach Luca and now I can’t believe it!”
In the Gold medal match Perilli faced and beat two-time Olympic Silver medallist Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova, 31 of Slovakia, building an early gap of 3 points after 9 targets, and concluding with a 13 to 11 hits win.
San Marino’s Alessandra Perilli grabs her first World Cup Final Gold medal in Nicosia
Silver medallist Stefecekova previously survived a shoot-off against 28-year old Fatima Galvez to enter the Gold medal match, leaving the Spaniard to shoot for the 3rd place, while another shoot-off determined the second participant to the Bronze medal match.
There, Australia’s Laetisha Scanlan, the Silver medallist at this year’s first World Cup stage in Acapulco (MEX), bested Russian shooter Tatiana Barsuk, 6th at the 2014 World Cup Final in Gabala (AZE), who finished the semifinals in 5th place.
Scanlan, unfortunately, was unable to repeat herself when a third and last tie-breaker was needed to decide the Bronze medallist. After her and Spain’s Fatima Galvez finished the medal match tied at 12 hits, the Australian missed her firs shoot-off clay, letting Galvez claim the 3rd place.
6th, with 10 semifinal hits, placed Japan’s Yukie Nakayama.
The ISSF World Cup Final in Shotgun events will continue tomorrow with the last final, the Trap Men, scheduled at 1:30 PM (UTC+3). The live streaming will be available on the ISSF official website: http://www.issf-sports.org/pages/livestream.ashx.
After qualifying for the finals through a shoot-off, Fatima Galvez beat Russia’s Elena Tkach in the Gold medal match to win the women’s Trap title. Tkach and bronze medallist Pak Yong Hui of the People’s Republic of Korea pocketed Rio 2016 Quota places as Galvez had already won one.
The first Gold medal of the 2015 ISSF Shotgun World Championship in Lonato, Italy, went to Spain’s Fatima Galvez (28), who secured the women’s Trap title by winning a neck and neck gold medal match against Russia’s Elena Tkach (45), with a score of 11 to 9 hits, today.
Galvez had narrowly qualified for the final by passing through a six-way shoot-off with 69+5 hits. Then, she cleared the semi-final with 12 hits, before meeting Tkach in the final duel for the brightest medal.
The Spanish shooter had already won an ISSF medal here in Lonato, 10 years ago, when she became the junior world champion at the age of 18.
“I can’t believe it, this match has been incredible. I made it to the final through a shoot-off, and then I managed to climb atop of the scoreboard. I am speechless,” the Spanish athlete said.
“I love this shooting range. It’s one of the best in the world, but still it’s a challenging one, it wouldn’t forgive any mistake. I won a junior world championship here ten years ago, this is must be my lucky place,” Galvez added. “I want to win a Rio 2016 medal. I am going for it.”
Spain’s Galvez wins the first Gold medal of the 2015 ISSF Shotgun World Championship in Lonato
Elena Tkach (45) won Silver, pocketing her fourth world championship medal after a gold in 2002 and two bronzes in 2011 and 2013. The Russian athlete, ranked 13th in the world, also claimed a Rio 2016 quota place. After qualifying with 71 hits, she shuttered 11 clays in the semi-final and then beat Egypt’s Maggy Ashmawy and Pak Yong Hui of People’s Republic of Korea in a three-way shoot-off to access the medal match.
“I’m not happy about my final, I performed badly, even though I wasn’t nervous at all during the in the last round. I was more nervous during the semifinal and during the shoot-off to enter the Gold medal match.” Tkach said.
“But today’s most important thing is the Olympic quota. I am definitely excited for winning it.” Added the Russian shooter, who participated in two Olympic editions in 2000 and 2012, and is now looking forward to Rio.
Pak Yong Hui (PRK) claimed today’s Bronze medal and the second Olympic quota to be awarded. The 45-year old athlete met and beat Egypt’s 22-year old Maggy Ashmawy – a first-time world championship participant – with a net score of 12 to 6 hits in the bronze medal match. They both had qualified for the final phases of the competition with 70 hits, and then hit 11 clays in the semi-final.
Australia’s Laetisha Scanlan (25) and New Zeland’s Natalie Ellen Rooney took the fifth and sixth places, respectively, with 10 hits in the semi-final.
Great Britain won the teams’ competition (where the qualification scores of the team’s three athletes are summed to form the score). Charlotte Kerwood, Kristy Barr and Abbey Ling scored a total of 203 clays, finishing two targets ahead of team Finland (Marika Salmi, Noora Antikainen, Satu Makela-Nummela) – second with 201 hits. The Russian Federation followed in third with 200 hits, scored by today’s winner Tkach and her teammates Ekaterina Rabaya and Tatiana Barsuk.
In the following junior women’s Trap final, it was Italy’s Alessia Iezzi (19) who secured Gold with 11+4 hits, beating Russia’s Yulia Tugolukova (19) in a shot-off at the end of the Gold medal match. Tugolukova took Silver with 11+3 hits. USA’s Ellie Roditis (17) claimed Bronze, beating the second Italian finalist Maria Lucia Palmitessa (16) by 11 to 10 hits. The Russian Federation fished atop of the teams’ scoreboard with 198 hits (Tugolukova, Iulia Saveleva, Ekaterina Subbotina). Italy (Iezzi, Palmitessa, Fiammetta Rossi) ended up in second place with 197 hits, while USA (Roditis, Grace Hambuchen, Emily Hampson) took bronze with 186 clays.
The 2015 ISSF Shotgun World Championship, held at the Trap Concaverdre Shooting Club of Lonato, Italy, hosts more than 800 shooters coming from 92 countries between the 10th and the 18th of September. Athletes from all over the world arrived here chasing 10 Rio 2016 Olympic Quota places, in one of the last chances to gain a pass for the next Games.
The competition will continue tomorrow, when the men’s and junior men’s Trap finals are scheduled at 17:15 and 18:15 (GMT+2), respectively. The matches will be broadcasted live on http://www.issf-sports.org
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