The Skeet Women event opened the 2015 ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Larnaca. Italy's Diana Bacosi won her second world cup Gold in a row, leaving China's Yu in second place.
Italy's Diana Bacosi won today's Skeet Women final, the opening event of the third ISSF Shotgun World Cup stage of the season held in Larnaca, Cyprus.
The 31-year old Italian shooter qualified for the final match with 72 hits, and then cleared the semi-final with a perfect score of 16 hits out of 16 targets.
Advancing to the Gold medal match, Bacosi met and beat China's Yu Xiumin with a score of 15 to 13 clays, missing only one target on her last station throughout the whole round.
Bacosi had already stepped atop of the ISSF world cup podium at the second world cup stage of the year in Al Ain. The Italian athlete, ranked second in the world, had grabbed a Rio 2016 Olympic Quota place there, qualifying for the next Games.
“It feels great to win my second world cup Gold back to back,” said Bacosi. “It gives me a lot of self confidence in the lead up to the European Games and to the ISSF World Championship.”
“This range is beautiful, it's the perfect place to shoot a world cup,” she continued. “But the wind can be challenging here, it hasn't been easy to pass through the qualifications. I gave my best in the semi-final, when the wind went down, and I finally made it.”
Two Olympic quotas were up for grabs at today's final. As Bacosi already had one, the first quota went to the Silver medallist, Yu Xiumin of the People's Republic of China.
Yu, coming back into an ISSF world cup final round after five years, qualified with 72 hits and then won a semi-final shoot-off with a score of 15+11 hits to advance to the Gold medal match, beating the 2008 Olympic finalist Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit, 28, from Thailand.
Today's Bronze went to one of the youngest finalists of this year's ISSF World Cup Series, USA's Morgan Craft, 21. Craft 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. She continued shooting in a semi-final shoot-off, beating Russia's first-time finalist Victoria Kholkina 4 to 3 hits, making it to the medal match. There, she met and defeat Jiewchaloemmit with a score of 15 to 13 hits, pocketing her very first ISSF world cup medal.
As USA has already achieved the maximum number of Olympic quotas for this event (2), the second Rio 2016 qualification spot to be awarded today went to Thailand's Jiewchaloemmit, who closed the match in fourth place.
Russia's first-time finalist Victoria Kholkina, 23, took the fifth place with 14 hits in the semi-final, after loosing a shoot-off for the Bronze medal match 3 to 4 hits against Craft. She was followed by another first-time finalist, Germany's 21-year old Nadine Messerschmidt, ranked 43rd in the world, who closed the match in sixth place with 12 hits in the semi-final after qualifying for the final round with 72 hits.
490 athletes from 77 countries are competing in the third ISSF Shotgun World Cup of the season held at the Olympic Shooting Range of Larnaca, Cyprus, from the 26th of April through the 3rd of May.
The next medal match, the Skeet Men final, will take place tomorrow afternoon at 17.30 (Cyprus time, EEST). The final will be broadcasted live on www.issf-sports.org