The ISSF World Cup in Baku continued with three more medal events. Malta’s Chetcuti won the men’s Double Trap Final, Bulgaria’s Boneva secured her first 25m Pistol Women gold, and Brazil’s Olympic hope Wu finished in the spotlights once again at the men’s 10m Air Pistol match.
Day-4 of the ISSF Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, saw Brazil, Bulgaria and Malta atop of the podium, in three different medal events.
William Chetcuti of Malta claimed the men’s Double Trap gold medal in the last event of the day. The 31-year old shooter finished his competition in style, beating Italy’s Marco Innocenti (37) in a shoot-off for Gold by 2 to 1 hits at the end of a thrilling gold medal match. Only the tiebreaker could separate them, as they finished the qualifications (139 hits), the semi-final (29 hits) and the gold medal match (28 hits) with the same scores.
“It’s great to win my second world cup gold in career, especially now. After this match, I am heading to the European Championship and then to the Games,” said Chetcuti, who has just been granted a Tripartite Commission Invitation place for Rio 2016. “It will be my fourth Olympics, following Athens, Beijing and London. I’ve placed 9th, 8th, and 9th in past Games… I hope this time I will make it to the final, and then I will have my chance.”
The 2009 ISSF World Cup title winner Mo Junjie of the People’s Republic of China (28) won the Bronze medal match, beating the 3-time Junior European Champion Artem Nekrasov (23) by 28 to 26 hits.
Earlier yesterday, Bulgaria’s Antoaneta Boneva (30) won the 25m Pistol Women event, beating Greece’s Anna Korakaki (20) in the gold medal match by 7 to 5 points after six series.
“I am speechless, I thought this medal was never going to come, finally I made it,” said Boneva, who had never won a gold medal in this event before, in spite of participating in 14 world cup final matches in her career since 2006. “I am preparing for the Games now. After this competition I will keep on training at home, on both the air and the sport pistol events.”
In the Bronze medal match, the reigning Olympic Champion Kim Jangmi of the Republic of Korea (23) beat Beijing’s 2008 Olympic Champion Chen Ying (38) by 8 to 0 points, winning 4 consecutive series. The Korean champion had been missing from an ISSF podium since 2014.
At the first final match of the day, earlier this morning, Brazil’s top-ranked shooter Felipe Almeida Wu collected the men’s 10m Air Pistol gold medal, reaching another important milestones ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The 24-year old athlete, ranked 5th in the world, had also won the first world cup stage of the season, in Bangkok, Thailand.
After qualifying with 583 points, Wu started off the final with a disappointing 8.5 in his first series. But soon he recovered, and after the 12th shot he had already reached the top of the scoreboard. Shooting consistently, he defended the lead, keeping India’s Jitu Rai and Korea’s Jin Jongoh behind him, to close the match in first place with 200.0 points. Rai, 28, finished in second place with 199.5 points. The three-time Olympic champion Jin, 36, followed him in third place with 178.8 points, collecting his second medal in a row, following yesterday’s 50m Pistol Men Gold.
“Right at the beginning of the final I made a couple of mistakes again, but I was able to control myself and that gave me confidence. We have the Olympic Games in front of us, and learning to control my emotions is crucial,” explained the Brazilian athlete.
“I am doing the best I can to prepare for Rio 2016. These months have been really stressful, we have been traveling a lot, but I hope that all the hard work will pay off, at the end. I think I will be more calm during the Games.”
At the end of Day-4 of the ISSF World Cup in Baku, the People’s Republic of China leads the intermediate medals standings with 4 medals (1 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze), followed by the Republic of Korea with 1 Gold and 4 Bronze medals.
The competition will continue today, with the men’s 50m Rifle Prone and 25m Rapid Fire Pistol finals scheduled at 11.00 Am and 2.00 Pm (GMT+4).
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