Rio 2016 Olympic silver medalist Natalie Rooney of New Zealand claimed the women’s Trap World Cup title in Rome, today, at the end of a nail-biting shoot-off.
Rooney finished the semi-final in the lead with 13 hits out of 15 targets, and moved into the gold medal match along with the title defender, San Marino’s Alessandra Perilli, who qualified with 12 hits.
During the medal match, the two athletes scored 9 clays out of 15 each, due to the wind and the challenging light conditions at the TAV Valle Aniene shooting range, in the outskirts of Rome.
To break the tie, they entered a shoot-off which lasted right to the 10th target, when Perilli missed a fatal clay, placing herself in second with 9+9 hits, and leaving the gold to Rooney, who sealed the victory with 9+10 targets.
“This has been my second ISSF World Cup Final, so I knew what to expect,” said Rooney, who had placed in 9th at last year’s final in Nicosia.
“I tried to go out there and do my best, and I made it, so I am really happy.”
“The light changed a lot this morning, and then the wind picked up this afternoon. That made it really difficult out there,” she continued.
“I was feeling pretty good during the semi-final, I knew what kind of rhythm I was going to do and I stuck to that. The final was more difficult, the wind picked up more, it became really hard, and that reflected on the scores.”
“The Rio 2016 experience has been pretty amazing,” added Rooney, “it was my first Olympics, and the reactions at home have been awesome to my silver medal. Shooting sport just got a lot more recognition in New Zealand.”
Rio 2016 Bronze medalist Corey Cogdell of USA pocketed the bronze with 12 hits, as she beat Lebanon’s sharpshooter Ray Bassil, who took the 4th place with 10 clays.
To access the medal match, Cogdell scored 10+1 targets in the semi-final, shooting-off Rio 2016 Olympic Champion Catherine Skinner of Australia (5th with 10+0 hits). Italy’s Alessia Iezzi, who qualified for this Final by winning bronze at this year’s ISSF World Cup stage in Baku, followed her in 6th place, with 7 hits.
55 athletes from 25 countries are competing at the 2016 ISSF Shotgun World Cup Final in Rome, Italy, from the October 10th through October 15th. The event will continue tomorrow with the last medal event, the men’s Trap Final, scheduled at 2.00 PM (UTC+2). The match will be live on www.issf-sports.org and on the Olympic Channel.