Mexico, the Russian Federation and the United States of America pocketed the four titles up for grabs today at the ISSF World Cup Final Olympic Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun shooting events in Gabala, Azerbaijan,
The 2014 ISSF World Cup Final in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun events, held in Gabala (AZE) from the 21st through the 28th of October, continued today with four more events: the 10m Air Pistol Women and Men's finals, the 50m Rifle 3 Positions and the Double Trap Men finals.
Alejandra Zavala of Mexico, 30, won the opening match of the day, the 10m Air Pistol Women events, pocketing the title with a final score of 201.5 points. The Mexican athlete had qualified for the final by clinching a Bronze at this year's ISSF World Cup Stage in Munich, where she had finished behind Poland's Klaudia Bres. Table turned here in Gabala, were the 20-year Polish shooter ended up in second place with 200.6 points, securing her first ISSF World Cup Final medal. Today's Bronze went to France's 2012 Olympic Silver medallist Celiene Goberville, 28, as she scored 176.2 points beating Russia's Ekaterina Korshunova, fourth with 155.5 points
The men's 10m Air Pistol final was led by Sergey Chervyakovskiy, 28, of the Russian Federation, after a breathtaking neck and neck duel against Spain's Pablo Carrera. Chervyakovskiy eventually claimed the Gold medal with 200.4 points, 0.5 points more than what scored by Carrera. The Spanish shooter – currently ranked second in the world in this event after winning the Munich's World Cup and finishing in second and the Maribor's stage – closed today's match in second with a final score of 199.9 points. The 2008 Olympic Champion Pang Wei of the People's Republic of China, 28, followed them in third position with a score of 177.4 points.
The Russian Federation celebrated another Gold medal a couple of hours later, as the 27-year old Rifle shooter Sergey Kamenskiy beat Germany's 27-year old Daniel Brodmeier at the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men final. The two athletes had already met during this year's ISSF World Cup Stage in Maribor, where Kamenskiy finished atop of the podium, and Brodmeier in third place. Today, they dueled right to the last shot for the title, which was eventually clinched by the Russian athlete with a score of 459.3 points. Brodmeier followed him in second place, 0.7 points behind, with a score of 458.6 points. The Norwegian finalist Ole Kristian Bryhn, who had led the Kneeling and the Prone series of the final, slid down in third place during the Standing position, gaining a Bronze medal with 446.7 points.
Spotlights were on USA and China, at the Double Trap Men final: three American and two Chinese athletes had indeed made it through the qualifications and into the semi-final. After two semi-final shoot-offs, Jeffrey Holguin advanced to the Gold medal match along with Wang Hao, while Joshua Richmond faced Hu Binyuan in the Bronze medal match. At the same time, the third US finalist Walton Eller ended up in fifth place with 28 hits, followed by Hubert Andrzej Olejnik of Slovakia, sixth with 27 hits.
After starting off the final with a miss, Holguin, 35, ranked fourth in the world, zeroed in and took the lead of the Gold medal match after the fifth double as Hao missed his second clay. From there on, the American shooter managed his advantage, closing the round with a great score of 29 hits, leaving his Chinese opponents in second place with 26 hits.
His teammate Joshua Richmond, who was awarded the Wolrd Championship title in Granada last September, did not join him on the podium. The 28-year old champion lost indeed the Bronze medal match against the 2008 Olympic Bronze medallist Hu Binyuan of the People's Republic of China, who beat him 28 to 26 hits.
154 athletes coming from 39 countries are competing in this year's ISSF World Cup Final. Only the bests qualified to be here: the 2013 World Cup Final title defenders and the World Championship medallists meet the top-8 athletes of each event, selected through this year's ISSF World Cup Series, aiming to the ISSF Cup.
The ISSF World Cup Final continues tomorrow with three events: the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women, the 50m Pistol Men and the Skeet Women final. Follow the competitions on www.issf-sports.org