Day-6 of the ISSF Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun World Cup in Baku was closed by the Skeet Women Final, which saw the success of the 2014 Continental American Champion Amber English of the United States of America.
The 26-year old athlete nailed today’s goal beating the 2008 Olympic Champion Chiara Cainero of Italy (38) by 14 to 12 hits in the medal match.
English had qualified with 72 hits out of 75 targets, and cleared the semi-final with 15 hits out of 16 targets.
“I am super-excited. I wish I had shot a better final, but I couldn’t be happier with the result right now,” she said after the match, wearing her first world cup gold medal in career.
“It’s the first time for me here in Baku, the range is beautiful, and the competition was awesome. It started to be pretty windy toward the end of the qualifications, that was challenging for everyone. But ultimately it was a good match.”
“My next goal is to get better and better, and shoot higher scores. – She continued - I am still working on finals, after I came off of a fourth place at the world cup in Rio.”
“I am excited to shoot the world cup final in October, I’ve just qualified.”
The second Italian finalist, Simona Scocchetti (30), pocketed today’s Bronze at the end of a close medal match. After qualifying with 73 hits, and hitting 13 targets in the semi-final, she tied with France’s first-time finalist Lucie Anastassiou (23) with 14 hits in the duel for the medal.
The two athletes had to continue shooting in a shoot-off to decide the medal, Scocchetti clinching it with 10 hits to Anastassiou’s 9.
The Russian Federation’s Anastasia Krakhmaleva (30) took the 5th place with 11 hits at the end of the semi-final. She was followed by Cyprus’ Panagiota Andreou (20), 6th with 10 hits.
After 13 out of 15 events conducted at the ISSF World Cup in Baku, the People’s Republic of China is still atop of the intermediate medals rankings with 1 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze medals. The Republic of Korea follows in second with 1 Gold and 5 Bronze medals.
Tomorrow, June 28, the stage will be closed by the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men Final (1.00 PM GMT+4) and by the men’s Skeet Final (3.45 PM).