Lebanon’s Ray Bassil earned her first ISSF World Cup title in eight years as she overhauled Australia’s early leader Penny Smith to win the trap women title in Baku today.
Bassil, 35, who earned a quota place to appear in her fourth Olympics this summer by winning last year’s Asian Championships in Changwon, used all her experience to maintain pressure on her 29-year-old rival, with eventual success.
Bronze went to Italy’s 25-year-old Erica Sessa – a first senior medal for the 2018 world junior champion who was making her debut in a senior ISSF World Cup final.
Australia’s medal count on the third day of finals in the Azerbaijan capital was soon further boosted as James Willett (pictured) earned gold with masterful performance in the trap men final, totalling 46 to finish four hits clear of Slovakia’s Filip Marinov, with bronze going to early leader Jean Pierre Brol Cardenas of Guatemala.
Smith, 29, who finished sixth in the Tokyo 2020 final, lost her form after scoring with 19 of her opening 20 efforts. Three consecutive misses brought her back level with Bassil and Sessa, although she maintained the lead as the leading qualifier on 116.
The left-handed Australian regained her impetus immediately with a perfect sequence of five hits and remained leader by dint of her bib number as she went into the contest for gold with Bassil.
But another sequence of three consecutive misses in her penultimate batch of five shots meant she had to settle for silver, eventually losing 44-40 as her Lebanese opponent closed with a perfect five.
After her bronze-medal performance at last month's Final Olympic Qualification in Doha and silver today, Smith told ISSF TV she had additional good news: "I’ve come away with bronze medal in Qatar and then also today qualified for Olympic Games in Paris. So it’s been a huge, big three weeks for the Australian team, obviously a lot of pressure on everyone, but I’m really happy with how I’ve come out."
Bassil commented: "For me this win is special because it is bringing back a lot of confidence and so I am super happy that my work is paying off and I really hope it is going to be a good kick-off for the Olympics. So it’s just a step forward."
Sessa, who had qualified fifth, looked as if she would miss a medal by one place as she contested third place with Rachel Tozier of the United States, who had place third in qualifying.
But another miss from Tozier saw her make an exit and the Italian was secure in her podium placing.
Tozier’s compatriot Aeriel Skinner finished fifth, with Turkey’s Safiye Temizdemir, who had finished second best in qualifying, being the first athlete to make an exit.
For the first three rounds in the men’s final Brol Cardenas looked unstoppable as he scored with each of his first 15 efforts.
But two misses in his next five efforts put him back into the mix, with Willett starting to find almost impeccable form.
The first two men out were 30-year-old Pavel Vanek of the Czech Republic, who had topped qualifying as he sought what would have been his first World Cup medal, and the second best qualifier, Turkey’s Tolga Tuncer.
Britain’s Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Matthew Coward-Holley finished level with Brol Cardenas on 31 after the first 35 targets but had to settle for fourth place as he had earned the sixth and last final place in qualifying while the Guatemalan had taken third place.
Willett, meanwhile, told ISSF TV that he believes he is now "in a good position" to claim a Paris 2024 quota place through the Qualification Ranking Points system.
"I'm really happy with the performance," he said. "To come away with a gold medal after the lead-in to this event is really good. We’ve had a three-week trip away now after the Final Qualifying Event in Doha.
It’s been a long few weeks and this was our last event for the Olympic selections for our country. And also the last one I could get ranking points at as well, so there was a lot riding on the line today and I’m stoked to have come away with the gold medal."
Asked if it was now "a waiting game" for him, he replied: "Pretty much so. The Europeans will run between now and the end of the Qualifying Period and I can’t attend that one, so it’s sort of up to the gods, I guess now, and how many points everyone else gets.
"But this was the most points I could get today so I’m really happy with that. And I should be in a good position now to take one of the quota places for the ranking points."