The ISSF World Championship Shotgun opened today in Moscow (RUS), where the first set of medals was delivered in the women’s Trap Junior event.
There, Italy’s Maria Lucia Palmitessa chose the perfect moment to climb on the higest step of the ISSF podium for the first time in he career. After qualifying for the final with the highest score, in fact, the Italian 18-year-old grabbed the lead at the early stage of the match, then building a comfortable lead that allowed her to survive some risky misses in the final ten target
Indeed, despite hitting all of her last 14 clays, Russian Federation’s 19-year-old Iuliia Saveleva was not able to close the gap with her rival, finishing only 1-hit behind her and claiming the Silver medal with 39 hits against Palmitessa’s 40.
“I felt confident from the very beginning, I knew that I had some good shooting in me,” said Palmitessa after the award ceremony. “I wasn’t checking the score during the final, at all. I knew I had an advantage, but I didn’t know how big it was, so I only realized I won at the very end of the match. It felt amazing, I finally made it!”
The podium was completed by Palmitessa’s teammate, 18-year-old Diana Ghilarducci of Italy, who entered the final with the sixth qualification score and took Bronze with 26 hits, securing her first career international medal.
Ghilarducci was followed by Slovakia’s 20-year-old debutant Veronika Vergova, who barely missed the medal positions and placed in 4th position with 18 hits, and by Serbia’s Nikolina Blagojevic, who entered the top-6 for the first time in her young career, taking 5th place with 14 crushed clays.
The second Russian participant, Polina Kniazeva (16), finished in 6th position with 10 target hits, matching the result she obtained at the 2017 European Championship in Baku (AZE).
On the team podium, Italy’s Palmitessa, Ghilarducci and Greta Luppi secured the Gold medal, followed in 2nd place by Russian Federation’s Saveleva, Kniazeva and Angelina Rudneva. United States’ Emma Lee Williams, Joyce Elizabeth Hunsaker and Emily Hampson took Bronze.
The ISSF World Championship Shotgun in Moscow (RUS) will continue tomorrow with the Trap Men Junior final, scheduled at Both finals will be streamed live on the ISSF website, on the Federation’s Livestream channel, on its official Facebook page and on the Olympic Channel.
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.