Two-time Olympic Champion Vincent Hancock of the United States of America nailed his third consecutive World Cup gold medal in Siggiewi (MLT), adding it to the ones he claimed in Guadalajara (MEX) and Changwon (KOR) earlier this year.
It’s the tenth World Cup gold of Hancock’s career, and definitely one of the hardest fought for the 29-year-old American shooter. “This was definitely one of hardest competitions to shoot in,” he said after the podium ceremony. “We had a lot of weather changes, sunlight was perfect, Malta is a beautiful country, but the wind was definitely a factor in the last few days. Today it kind of settled down a little bit, the targets were more consistent and we saw a lot of high scores today.”
“Unfortunately in the final we all missed quite a few targets, there was a little bit of a glare because of the sun getting so low behind the high house,” he concluded.
After missing targets number 39 and 40 at station 5, indeed, Hancock slid down in 2nd place, letting Egypt’s 27-year-old Azmy Mehelba take a 1-hit lead.
In the final third of the match, however, the 27-year-old from Alexandria missed three of his targets, while Hancock nailed a perfect streak of 20 hits, climbing back atop the table and sealing his win with 56 hits out of 60 clays. Mehelba finished with 54 hits, securing the second World Cup silver of his career after the one he took in Baku (AZE) in 2016.
Gabriele Rossetti of Italy climbed on the third step of the podium, taking bronze with 45 crushed clays out of 50 and claiming his second consecutive World Cup medal: a few weeks ago in Changwon (KOR), in fact, he won silver.
The 23-year-old reigning Olympic and World Champion — who also won the ISSF World Cup Final trophy in Nicosia (CYP) in 2015 — is still missing his first win in an ISSF World Cup, having secured two silvers and two bronzes so far.
Two Russian shooters placed just outside of the podium positions: 31-yer-old Anton Astakhov — who entered the final with the highest qualification score — took 4th place with 33 hits out of 40 clays, while his 29-year-old teammate Yaroslav Startsev — participating in his first international competition — concluded in 5th place with 26 out of 30.
Competing in his second final match ever, France’s 30-year-old Eric Delaunay finished in 6th position with 16 hits out of 20 targets, missing two costly clays on his last trip to station number 4.
The ISSF World Cup Stage 5 in Siggiewi (MLT) will continue on Tuesday with the Trap Women final, scheduled at 6:30 pm (UTC+2:00).
The match will be streamed live on the ISSF website, on the Federation’s Livestream channel and on its official Facebook page.
Live results, news and updates will be available on www.issf-sports.org and on all ISSF social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Weibo and Youku.