Russia’s Vasily Mosin Wins Double Trap World Title In Lonato

The Russian athlete beat Great Britain’s Tim Kneale in the Gold medal match. Kneale claimed Silver and an Olympic quota place. The Bronze medal and the second spot for Rio 2016 went to Kuwait’s Ahmad Alafasi.

At 43, Russian Federation’s Vasily Mosin finally grabbed one of the few awards he was missing: the World Championship Gold medal in the Double Trap Men event. He did it in Lonato (ITA), where he prevailed over Great Britain’s Tim Kneale in the Gold medal match after they both shot perfectly for the first six doubles.

After two mistakes of the British shooter, however, Mosin built a comfortable lead and never turned back anymore, closing the Gold medal match with 29 hits against Kneale’s 26.

“Since I came here for the first time in 1995 I have been dreaming about winning a championship in Lonato,” said Mosin. “Finally, my dream came true. It’s an amazing feeling to win this title in front of my friends, of my sponsors, and the whole shooting sport family.”

“This range is amazing, but at the same time it’s very difficult. I put a lot of efforts into this competition, coming here 11 days in advance to train and to get used to the facility.” Concluded the Russian athlete.

As Mosin had already collected a Rio 2016 quota place in Al-Ain (UAE) during this year’s World Cup, Kneale pocketed an Olympic spot for his country along with the Silver medal.

In the semifinal round Mosin led the group since the first doubles, and despite missing his very last target he still concluded in 1st position with 28 hits, while Kneale, shuttering 19 of his last 20 clays, climbed into the second position and earned his spot in the Gold medal match with 27 hits.

Another tie-breaking shoot-off between three athletes was necessary to determine the Bronze medal match participants, as Willett, Alafasi and Al-Athba all concluded the semifinal with 26 points.

An early mistake from the Qatari shooter opened the way for the Australian and the Kuwaiti, who took part in a third shoot-off to decide the Bronze medallist after they concluded with 24 hits each. Alafasi, the Silver medallist at the 2014 Asian Championship, won the tie-breaker by 4 hits to 3, collecting the second Olympic quota along with the Bronze.

Russia’s Vasily Mosin wins Double Trap world title in Lonato

The 2008 Olympic Gold medallist, United States’ Walton Eller, concluded the semifinal in 6th place with 24 hits.

In the team competition, Kneale, Matthew John Coward-Holley and Matthew French led Great Britain to the Gold medal with a total of 414 points, followed by the Russian Federation’s team (Mosin, Vitaly Fokeev and Artem Nekrasov) with 406. On the third step of the team’s podium, finally, India were represented by Asab Mohd, Ankur Mittal and Sangram Dahiya, with a total of 400 points.

In the Double Trap Men Junior event, China’s Huang Xiaomin claimed the Gold medal after besting Russian shooter Kirill Fokeev in the Gold medal match with a 28-to-27 score. The Junior Bronze medal went to Conner James Gorsuch of Great Britain, who prevailed over another Russian shooter, Kamil Khusaenov, finishing the Bronze medal match with a 27-to-26 score.

The Italian squad composed by Jacopo Dal Moro, Ignazio Maria Tronca and Lorenzo Ferrari collected the Junior Team Gold medal, marking a score of 393 hits, while Russians juniors Fokeev, Khusaenov and Viacheslav Yukhimenko finished in 2nd place with 387. The Junior Team Bronze medal, finally, was awarded to People’s Republic of China, who concluded with 378 hits thanks to the shooting of Gold medallist Huang along with Zhao Shiqi and Cai Jinzhan.

The ISSF President Olegario Vazquez Raña and the ISSF Secretary General Franz Schreiber welcomed the President of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), Giovanni Malagò, who visited the range and attended the two finals.

The World Championship will continue tomorrow with the Skeet Men pre-event training, and it will conclude on Thursday with the Skeet Men final, scheduled at 5:15 PM (GMT+2), and with the Skeet Men Junior final at 6:15 PM.

All finals will be broadcasted live on http://www.issf-sports.org and on the Eurovision network.

China Earns Two More Golds And USA’s 2008 Olympic Champ Eller Comes Back Atop Of The Podium At The ISSF World Cup In Gabala

Three events were contested at the ISSF World Cup in Azerbaijan, today. Mai and Cao of the People’s Republic of China won the 50m Pistol Men and the 25m Pistol Women events. USA’s Walton Eller came back atop of an ISSF podium two years after his last victory, at the 2013 World Championship.

Day-4 of the ISSF Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan, saw the Chinese flag risen twice atop of the podium at the men’s 50m Pistol and at the women’s 25m Pistol finals, and the victory of USA’s 2008 Olympic Champion Walton Eller at the men’s Double Trap.

Hancock wins Skeet final and makes it to the US team for Rio 2016

The competition day was opened by the 50m Pistol Men event, won by the 2013 Asian Champion Mai Jiajie (27), from the People’s Republic of China. Mai, who had never won a world cup stage before, scored 565 points during the qualifications, and then marked 194.7 points in the final to finish atop of the podium. The Chinese athlete won with over 3 points of advantage on Daehun Park of the Republic of Korea (20) – ranked 10th in the world – who collected today’s silver with 191.4 points after qualifying for the final match with 567 points. The Republic of Korea celebrated twice, today, as their second finalist, Kim Cheongyong (18), made it to the third step of podium, collecting his first international medal ever with 169.9 points (and 563 qualification points). Rio 2016 Quota places went to Spain’s Pablo Carrera (29), who finished in fifth with 128.5 points, and to India’s Prakash Nanjappa (39), 8th with 70.1 points.

At the following 25m Pistol Women event, the 18-year old Chinese finalist Cao Lijia beat Russia’s Vitalina Batsarashkina (18) with a net score of 7 to 1 points in the gold medal match, after passing through the semi-final with 18 hits. “This is a great birthday present. I turned 18 just one month ago, and this medal is the best thing that could happen to me,” Cao said. “I am really happy about this gold, it’s my first international victory, and I hope I will get many more in the future. I would like to thank my coach and my team, without them this would not have happened.”

Silver medallist Vitalina Batsarashkina (semi-final: 20 hits, final: 1 point) earned a Rio 2016 Quota place, as the People’s Republic of China had already achieved the maximum number of quotas allowed per country in this event. Cao’s teammate Zhang Jingjing (26) – the reigning world champion – claimed today’s bronze as she beat London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Olena Kostevych of Ukraine (30) by 7 to 3 points. The second Olympic quota up for grabs went to Mongolia’s 2013 Asian Champion Munkhzul Tsogbadrakh, who placed in 6th with 13 hits.

The 2008 Olympic champion Walton Eller (33) finished atop of the podium at the men’s Double Trap event, beating Great Britain’s Steven Scott (30) by 30 to 26 targets in the gold medal match. Scott, the silver medalist, gained an Olympic quota place for his country. The event’s second ticket to Rio went to Germany’s Michael Goldbrunner (29), who lost to Russia’s Vasily Mosin (43) in the bronze medal match.

It took a long time before getting to the medal matches. At the end of the semi-final, five athletes were tied in second place with 29 targets: India’s Asab Mohd (27), China’s Hu Binyuan (37), plus Eller, Goldbrunner, and Mosin. Hu was the first to leave the shoot-off, taking 6th place after missing just one target in the semi-final’s first 15 doubles.

China earns two more golds and USA’s 2008 Olympic Champ Eller comes back atop of the podium at the ISSF World Cup in Gabala

Then the shoot-off split in two: Eller and Goldbrunner fought to enter the gold medal match; Mosin and Mohd, for the bronze medal match. Mosin beat Mohd in the shoot-off (20-19), and Goldbrunner in the bronze medal match (30-29), securing the third spot. Eller beat Goldbrunner (4-3) to join Scott in the gold medal match.Scott, who had hit all of his 30 targets in the semifinal, then missed four and lost to Eller.

“I feel really good,” said Eller. “It’s been a while since I’ve been up on the top of the podium, so it’s nice to be back.” Winning a gold for the first time in the last two years, Eller feels now more optimistic about the Olympics. “Yeah,” Eller explained, “it puts me in a great spot for Rio. Hopefully I can just keep doing what I’m doing. I knew I had the ability to win a gold. I’ve been shooting really great scores in the last two to three years. It’s just that sometimes it’s tough: you got a lot of great competitors out here. They train just as hard as we do. Well, It’s nice to be on top.”

The 2015 ISSF World Cup in Gabala will continue tomorrow with the men’s 50m Rifle Prone and 25m Rapid Fire Pistol events. Finals are scheduled at 10.00 and 14.30 (GMT+5), and will be broadcasted live on http://www.issf-sports.org