Blue skies and great western landscapes where the background of today’s Skeet Women medal match, which took place under the shining sun of Arizona, USA.
USA’s Olympic hope Corey Cogdell, the Bronze medallist Beijing 2008, won today’s final match coming back from the fifth place on the start list.
The American shooter made it to today’s final after passing through a five way shoot-off with a qualifications core of 70+1 hits.
Then, during the Final round, she zeroed in an missed just once, finishing the medal match with 24 hits, and an overall score of 94 target.
Cogdell had participated in her last ISSF World Cup final match in 2010, when she gained a Silver medal in Acapulco.
"It feels great to win the first international match of the year, here in USA" Cogdell said right after the match.
"This gives me a lot of confidence in going into our Olympic team selection match, which will be conducted here in Tucson."
Silver to Russia
Russia’s expert Elena Tkach, 41, secured today’s Silver medal, with a total score of 91 target. Tkach secured a spot in the final qualifying with 70+1 hits, tied to Cogdell, and then shot 21 clays throughout the final.
The 2002 World Champion, ranked fourth in the world stood five times on ISSF World Cup podiums since 1998.
Climbing up to the podium, Tkach overtook the 25-year old Spanish shooter Fatima Galvez, and Germany’s 28-year old Jana Beckmann, who had qualified in the lead with 71 hits after the qualifications.
After shooting 19 targets each, the two young finalists had to shoot-off for Bronze, Galvez securing the medal with 90+2 hits, and Beckmann finishing in fourth with 90+1 targets.
The 2007 World Cup Final winner, the 34-year old Italian shooter Giulia Iannotti, closed the match in fifth with a total of 89 hits, while the second Spanish shooter, Beatriz Martinez, ended up in sixth with 88 hits.
The 2012 ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Tucson, Arizona, will continue tomorrow with the last match, the Trap Men Final, taking place at 2.30 PM (GMT-7)
Keep on following the match on www.issf-sports.org and on www.youtube.com/issfchannel