30 targets weren't enough to decide who should win today's Junior Women's Trap at the World Championship in Granada, Spain. Yulia TUGOLUKOVA (RUS), 18, and Valeria RAFFAELLI (ITA), 20, dueled neck and neck throughout the whole game, ending both the semifinal and the gold medal match with equal scores (14-14, 13-13). But at the thirty-first shot of her day, the first in the shoot-off, Raffaelli missed, and Tugolukova took the chance, and the gold.
“I can't understand [how I feel],” Tugolukova said. “It's really so much emotion for me. It's the first time in my life [to win gold]. I can't understand.”
After taking silver at the European Championships in Hungary earlier this year, Tugolukova was looking forward to the World Championship in Spain. “I was dreaming about it,” she said.
“It was a little bit difficult [at the shoot-off]. I had worked very hard before, and I tried to use that [work] in the shoot-off.”
Tugolukova is a student at a Russian Government Institute. Still, she “spend[s] so much time shooting. I have a camp with our National Team near Moscow [and] shooting is my life.”
Raffaelli's teammate Lisa Nicole MARZO (ITA), 20, claimed bronze, as she overcame Serdag Saadet KANDIRA (TUR) in the third place playoff by 14-12. Kandira had entered the match after winning a shoot-off (1-0) against JIANG Lifan (CHN), who eventually came fifth. Alessia IEZZI (ITA) was last.
TEAM
Italy won the team competition (based on the qualification scores) as Marzo (72 hits), Raffaelli (70) and Iezzi (69) added up to 211 hits, setting a Junior World Record. The People's Republic of China followed suit with 196 hits, thanks to Jiang (71), Deng (65) and Liu (60). The Russian Federation won bronze, as Tugolukova (70), Subbotina (65) and Khokhlova (57) made up for 192 hits.
See the full team standings via web and PDF, and check the schedule to learn about the next events.