Marking his first time on a World Cup podium as a senior, Italy's
Gabriele Rossetti just won the bronze at the
men's skeet of Gabala.
On his way to the podium, Rossetti, 20, missed just one target -- in the semifinal, denying him access to the gold medal match.
"[That] mistake brought me to third place, not first," Rossetti says. "But it's a great result as my first experience at a World Cup."
Rossetti had won two gold medals last year (at Granada's World Championship, and at an European Championship in Hungary.)
This year, Rossetti shot "almost perfectly," as he puts it. His score at a national Grand Prix in Ravenna (124/125) convinced his coach, Andrea Benelli, of his value.
Rossetti, Benelli thought, was ready to move on to the next challenge. He let him compete as a senior in the next Grand Prix in Sardinia, an Italian island.
As a senior in Sardinia, he got to compete with Italian shooters like Valerio Luchini, a four-time World Cup medalist -- "one more motivation," says Rossetti.
The motivation worked: Rossetti won the competition.
That success made Benelli understand that Rossetti could go even further -- at the season's last World Cup stage in Gabala, Azerbaijan.
"I knew that I'd have to work a lot," says Rossetti of his training for Gabala. "Every day I've worked with my coach, and with my personal coach."
His "personal coach" is his father Bruno Rossetti, an Olympic Bronze Medallist in skeet at Barcelona 1992.
His father Bruno, Rossetti says, taught him everything.
"I train everyday with him. He gave me all of his experience -- him, and my coach [Benelli]."
And now, Benelli has to make another choice on Rossetti -- will he compete as a junior or as a senior at Lonato's World Championship next month?
To Rossetti, that doesn't make any difference.
"Whether it's junior, senior, Grand Prix, or World Cup," says Rossetti, "I shoot at my targets regardless. Whatever the competition is, I know I have to do my best with my targets."
"To me, it's alway target by target."
EDIT: A previous version of this article stated that Rossetti's coach is Francesco Fazi. It is not. Fazi used to be the Italian coach until 2012--a position that Andrea Benelli then took.