Huang wins men's junior Double Trap, gives China third Lonato medal

The 19-year-old of the People's Republic of China, Huang Xiaomin, beat the Russian Federation's Kirill Fokeev, 20, in the gold medal match at the men's junior Double Trap in Lonato.


Huang gave China its third individual medal at the 2015 ISSF Shotgun World Championship in Italy. Yesterday, Che Yufei had won the women's junior Skeet; and Wei Ning had come in third at the women's Skeet.


First, Huang was behind Fokeev. The Russian athlete had taken an early, one-target lead after three doubles. Then Huang caught up, but Fokeev took the first spot back - just six doubles were left as the score was 17-16.


That's when Huang came back. Fokeev missed one target, and Huang missed none - the Chinese athlete was in joint first place (22-22) as the gold medal match was moving into its final three doubles.


Out of the next six targets, Fokeev missed one. Huang was perfect: He hit them all, and won the gold.


This was Huang's first medal ever. He had never even competed in an international competition.


Fokeev's silver was not his first success. He had won five junior medals before - a bronze at the 2013 World Championship in Lima; a silver, and three bronze at European Championships in the past three years.


In the bronze medal match, Great Britain's James Conner Gorsuch beat Russia's Kamil Khusaenov (27-26).


Gorsuch, 18, won after a close match against Khusaenov, 19. The two athletes were tied throughout the first part of the match.


The British shooter took the lead when his opponent missed his 14th target. From then on, Gorsuch and Khusaenov only missed one target each - both in the second-last double.


Holding onto his one-target marging, Gorsuch closed in first and won the bronze.


Before Lonato, Gorsuch had never won a medal. His only previous appearances had been at European Championships: He had come in 9th at Maribor 2015, and in 10th at Sarlospuszta 2014.

Before the medal matches, there was a shoot-off to determine who would be in them. Fokeev, Khusaenov, and Gorsuch had all closed the semifinal in a tie with 26 hits.


In the shoot-off, Gorsuch was the first athlete to leave - he missed his sixth target, and gained a spot in the bronze medal match.


Then was the long duel between Fokeev and Khusaenov: Only after 20 targets was there a miss - by Khusaenov, who joined Gorsuch to compete for the bronze. Fokeev won the shoot-off (20-19), and entered the gold medal match against Huang (who had won the semifinal with 27 hits).

Italy's Jacopo Dal Moro, 18, came in fifth with 25 targets. The 20-year-old of Slovakia Filip Praj, who had won the men's junior Trap two days ago, came in sixth (24).


In the team competition, Italy won. Dal Moro's 134 targets added up to Ignazio Tronca's 131, and to Lorenzo Ferrari's 128. Italy closed on 393 to win the gold.


Russia came in second. Fokeev, Khusaenov, and Yukhimenko scored 387 targets together, and won the silver.


China won in the team event too - a bronze. Gold medalist Huang, and teammates Zhao and Cai scored 378 targets.


"I feel very happy and satisfied about my result," says gold medalist Huang. "I was very nervous about the final. But I tried my best to reach the best result."


"Since 2001, I started being interested in shooting. And then I never stopped. I will continue and try to be the best. I hope to reach the Olympic Games."


The World Cup in Lonato now stops for two days, and will be back next Thursday for the last competition day - which will feature the men's Skeet, and the junior version of the event.


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