The 2016 ISSF World Cup in Baku finished in style today, with a great men’s Skeet final won by Nikolay Teplyy of the Russia Federation.
The 28-year old first-time finalist beat Egypt’s Azmy Mehelba (25) in a shoot-off for gold, as the two tied with 15 hits at the end of the medal match.
Teplyy ha qualified with 123 hits, and then scored a perfect 16 in the semi-final, on his way to the podium. Competing on the international scene since 2005, he had won a European Junior Bronze medal in Maribor in 2006, but his best world cup finish so far had been a 9th place in Acapulco 2013.
Mehelba, ranked 11th in the world, came back onto an ISSF podium two years after his last medal, won at the 2014 ISSF World Cup Final held in Gabala, Azerbaijan.
The final was a also a stage of success for Italy’s world record holder Tammaro Cassandro (23), who beat the second Egyptian finalist Mostafa Hamdy (44) by 16 to 11 hits, to win the bronze medal with 5 hits of advantage on his opponent.
Today’s was Cassandro’s third consecutive world cup medal of the season, following a bronze in Rio de Janeiro and a silver in San Marino.
He entered the semi-final as the qualifications’ leader, with a great score of 124 hits, just one hit shy of equaling the world record of 125 targets. A record he had already tied in San Marino, three weeks ago.
Shooting in the semi-final, he missed three clays, finishing with a score of 13 hits, which entered him in a four-way shoot-off to advance the bronze medal match. Cassandro and Hamdy shuttered 8 clays, moving on to the medal duel, while Greece’s Nikolas Mavrommatis (35) and India’s Man Singh (27) were left in 5th and 6th place, respectively, with 13 + 7 hits.