Legendary shooter Kimberly Rhode did it again: in the second-to-last event of the ISSF World Cup Stage 1 in Guadalajara (MEX), the 38-year-old United States’ athlete won the 11th Skeet Women gold of her outstanding career.
After missing two targets in her very first station, Rhode sealed her match with an impressive streak of 30 consecutive hits, eventually equalling her own world record of 56 hits. “I started out a little rough, then I pulled it together and did that great final run, I’m just so happy that I walked away with the gold medal, especially with my teammates next to me on the podium,” said Rhode, who preceded United States’ second finalist Caitlin Connor (28), who took silver with 52 hits.
“I do still feel the excitement being out there, but having done it so many times, I’m a lot more comfortable in that moments,” she added. “The plans for this season include a lot of shooting, spending time with my son and taking care of my land back at home: planting some trees, stuff like that…”
It’s the second medal-combo for the United States in Guadalajara, after the one pocketed by Ashley Carroll and Aeriel Alease Skinner in the Trap Women final.
The bronze medal was awarded to Great Britain’s Amber Hill, who pocketed her second career World Cup meda, with the first one being the gold she won at the ISSF World Cup in Acapulco (MEX) in 2013. Hill — number 5 in the World Ranking in this event — finished with 42 target hits out of 50.
The British 20-year-old was followed by Slovakia’s Danka Bartekova and People’s Republic of China’s Wei Meng, who respectively placed 4th and 5th.
Bartekova (33) — bronze medalist at the 2012 Olympic Games in London (GBR) — crushed 32 of her 40 targets, missing two costly ones in her last round on station number 5; 28-year-old Wei, instead, placed 5th with 24 hits out of 30 targets.
Eliminated after 20 targets, Argentina’s shooter Melisa Gil (33) took 6th position with 13 hits, matching her best result in a World Cup thirteen years after Americana (BRA).
Medal standings after 14 out of 15 events
| Rank | Nation | Individual | Team | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | Silver | Bronze | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | ||
| 1 | IND |
3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 9 | |
| 2 | CHN |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | |
| 3 | USA |
2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||
| 4 | FRA |
1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | ||
| 5 | ROU |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| 6 | FIN |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| 6 | HUN |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| 8 | GRE |
1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| 8 | LUX |
1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| 10 | GER |
2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | ||||
| 11 | AUT |
2 | 2 | 2 | |||||||
| 12 | AUS |
1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| 12 | ITA |
1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| 12 | MEX |
1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| 15 | GBR |
1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| 11 | 11 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 42 | ||
The ISSF World Cup Stage 1 in Guadalajara (MEX) will conclude tomorrow with the Skeet Men final, scheduled at 5:00 pm (UTC-6:00).
The final 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 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.