The reigning Olympic Champion, USA's Kimberly Rhode, 35, won today's Skeet Women final at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Acapulco, Mexico. Rhode also pocketed a Rio 2016 Olympic Quota: USA has now achieved the maximum number of Olympic slots available per country in this event (2 quotas), as Brandy Drodz had already secured one at the 2014 ISSF World Championship in Granada.
Rhode qualified for the semi-final with 72 targets, and then finished atop of the board making it into the Gold medal match with a perfect score of 16 hits out of 16 targets.
There, she met and beat hear teammate Caitlin Connor, 24, who closed the medal match in second place claiming Silver with 13 hits (72 hits in the qualifications, 14+2 hits in the semi-final).
“It couldn't go any much better, I am very very happy!” Rhode said.
“I am super-excited looking forward to 2016.” Added the American shooter, who ranks atop of the Olympic record tables as the most successful women shooter ever, having won 3 Olympic individual titles, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medal in the Skeet Women and in the now discontinued Double Trap Women events since 1996.
“My expectations for Rio? I always hope for the best, but I also take one competition at a time, hopefully getting better and better. In London, I finished with 99 hits out of 100 targets, maybe next time I can score them all.” Rhode concluded, smiling after the medal ceremony.
Today's Bronze medal went to China's Wei Meng, 25, who closed the semi-final with 13 hits, and then won a shoot-off against her teammate Wei Ning (final placement: 5th) and the third US finalist Morgan Craft (final placement: 6th), making it tot the Bronze medal match.
Wei, who arrived here after winning a Silver medal at last year's ISSF World Cup Final in Gabala, also secured the second Olympic Quota place to be awarded today.
In the medal match, the Chinese finalist beat 16 to 8 targets Cyprus' Andri Eleftheriou, 30, who had a bitter surprise today. She ended up the semi-final with 15 hits, a score which qualified her for the Gold medal match and that would place her in the position to secure an Olympic quota place. She started celebrating, but through the semi-final she had collect two yellow cards (ready position violations), and therefore the jury sanctioned her with a one-target deduction, throwing her back into the Bronze medal match. Passing from joy to frustration, Eleftheriou lost her concentration, and missed 8 targets in the medal match finishing in fourth with 8 hits.
The 2015 ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Acapulco, Mexico, will continue tomorrow with last final, the Skeet Men's, starting at 16.30. Follow the event live on http://www.issf-sports.org/pages/livestream.ashx