24-year old Wang Xiaojing, from the People’s Republic of China, set a new world record of 45 hits out of 50 targets to win today’s Trap Women final at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Larnaka, Cyprus.
The Chinese athletes scored the record at her second appearance in an ISSF World Cup. She had indeed debuted at the first stage of the year, in New Delhi, last February, making the final and eventually finishing in 5th place.
After qualifying for the final with 71 hits, she had a rough start into the match, missing two targets out of the first three. But as the light changed half way through the round, her opponents started missing, while she zeroed in scoring one target after the other, climbing up the scoreboard.
Fighting for the brightest medal, she overtook Lebanon’s two-time Olympian Ray Bassil, 28, who eventually closed the match in second place with 42 hits, winning her third ISSF World Cup silver medal in career.
San Marino’s 2015 ISSF World Cup champion Alessandra Perilli, 29, took today’s Bronze with 33 hits. She led through the first part of the match hitting 18 targets in a row, but as the visibility changed she missed 7 targets, losing the leadership.
“Wang was the only one with the right lenses, when the light changed.” Two-time world cup gold medalist Rodolfo Viganò of Italy said, while commenting on the final. “It was really sunny when the match started, but then the wind peaked up and clouds came in, totally changing the visibility. She was the only finalist wearing the right glasses at that moment, and that probably made a difference.”
Also the 2015 Junior World Champion, Italy’s Alessia Iezzi, found it difficult to deal with the visibility. She only missed two targets out of the first 15, fighting for a spot on the podium, but then she nailed five zeroes sliding down in 4th place with a total tally of 28 hits.
Rio 2016 Olympic silver medalist Natalie Rooney, 28, from New Zealand, followed her in 5th place with 23 hits, while Spain’s top-ranked Trap shooter Fatima Galvez, 30, took the 6th place in the final with 18 hits.
The last medal event of the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Larnaka, the men’s Trap final, will take place tomorrow afternoon, at 17.15 (GMT+3). After the first 50 qualification targets, Norway’s Sindre Kragsrud holds the lead with a perfect score of 50 targets, while 10 athletes are tied at 49. The next 75 qualification targets, tomorrow morning, will select the top-6 advancing to the final match.
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 competitions, 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.