Wei Meng of the People’s Republic of China, 27, won today’s Skeet Women final at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Larnaka, Cyprus.
The 27-year old shooter scored 54 targets in the final to beat USA’s 6-time Olympic medalist Kimberly Rhode, who finished in second with 52 hits.
Wei had passed through the qualifications with 71 hits, and survived a shoot-off scoring +13 +10 targets to advance to the final match.
There she shot solidly, missing just 6 targets out of 60 to end up on the highest step of the podium. Wei had won a world cup silver in Tucson (USA) in 2014 and a bronze in Acapulco (MEX) in 2015. Through today’s victory she qualified for the 2017 ISSF World Cup Final, that will be held in New Delhi in October, when she hopes to improve her records (she won two world cup final silver medals in 2014 and 2016).
The Chinese winner stole the show to Kimberly Rhode, who arrived here in Larnaka as the favorite after winning the 2016 ISSF World Cup Final and the first two ISSF World Cup Stages of the season in New Delhi and Acapulco. The 37-year old 6-time Olympic medalist took today’s Silver as she missed 8 targets in the final, in spite of qualifying with the highest score (73 hits out of 75 targets) this morning.
Following Rhode, it was the 2010 Asian Champion Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit of Thailand, ranked fourth in the world, who claimed today’s Bronze medal with 41 hits. The 30-year old shooter missed her chances to finish upon the second step of the podium as she dropped a fatal target on station 5.
The two Italian finalists Simona Scocchetti and Chiara Cainero ended up in 4th and 5th places with 30 and 22 hits, respectively. Rhode’s teammate Dania Jo Vizzi took place 6 with 15 hits while making her first appearance in a world cup final round.
Over 400 athletes from 61 countries are competing in the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Larnaka, the last shotgun stage of the year. The competition will continue tomorrow, with the men’s Skeet final, scheduled at 17.45 (UTC+3).
The final match will be streamed live on the ISSF website, on the Federation’s Livestream channel and on its official Facebook page.
Live results of the competition, news and updates will be available on www.issf-sports.org and on all ISSF social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Weibo and Youku.