Italy’s Erica Sessa is the new junior women’s World Champion.
The 19-year old shooter won the match beating India’s Manisha Keer in a shoot-off, after the two had tied in the lead at the end of the 50-shot final.
With one hit in the shoot-off, Sessa beat Keer (who missed her shoot-off target) and finished atop of the podium with a tally of 41 hits, equalling the world record set in 2017 by Marie-Louis Meyer of Germany at the European Championship in Baku (AZE).
The Italian athlete had already finished in the spotlights at the 2017 ISSF Junior World Cup on her home turf, in Porpetto, Italy, where she collected her first international medal. She continued winning at this year’s European Championship in Leobersdorf, in August.
“I am really satisfied about the turnout of my competition, not only the final, the whole competition.” Sessa said.
“I never gave up, from the first to the last clay.”
“Winning three titles in a year it’s both an honor and a responsibility. I will have to work even harder next year, to defend what I have gained in the last months.”
Russia’s Daria Semianova, 16, claimed bronze with 31 hits, winning her second international award in less then a month, after her silver medal finish at the same European Championship in Leobersdorf.
The second Italian finalist, Maria Lucia Palmitessa closed the match in fourth place with 27 hits. Germany’s Kathrin Murche and Kazakhstan’s Sarsankul Rysbekova follwed in fifth and sixth place with 27 and 20 hits, respectively.
The Italian team (Palmitessa, Sessa and Sofia Littamè) finished atop of the Trap Women Junior Team podium with a combined score of 352 hits, establishing a new junior world record.
The People’s Republic of China, in spite of having no shooters in the final, claimed the team’s silver with 327 clays scored by Zhang Ting, Duan Yuwei and Gao Wendi. One target behind, at 326, the United States of America (Emma Lee Williams, Carey Jeana Garrison and Ann Madelynn Bernau) collected today’s bronze.