Twenty-year-old Jordan Sapp broke a junior qualifying world record that has stood for more than a decade today as he scored a perfect 125 at the ISSF Junior World Cup Shotgun in Porpetto, Italy – but had to settle for bronze in an outstanding final.
Gold went to his 19-year-old United States compatriot Benjamin Keller, winner of the last two individual world junior titles, who had equalled the former qualifying world record of 124 first set in 2013 by Tammaro Cassandro of Italy and equalled four times before this competition.
Keller, pictured left, who partnered Sapp, pictured right, in helping win the world junior team title last year, scored 56 out of 60 in the final to replicate the victory he had in this competition last year, with silver going to India’s Bhavtegh Singh Gill, who totalled 52.
Sapp, who won senior team silver at this year’s Championship of the Americas in Santo Domingo, finished third, one place ahead of Lithuania’s Tomas Vaitekunas.
Italy’s Antonio La Volpe, who had earned the last place in the final after winning a shoot-off involving three fellow competitors, finished fifth and Dorian Richard of France sixth.
Victory in the skeet women final was far more clear cut as Britain’s Madeleine Russell finished eight clear of her nearest opposition – Italy’s Arianna Nember – with a score of 54.
Bronze went to Madeline Corbin of the United States, who finished one place ahead of Slovakia’s Adriana Zajikova.
Corbin’s compatriot Alishia Layne finished fifth, and Ukraine’s Oleksandra Bartysheva sixth.
The contest for gold was a tight affair in the trap women event, where Carey Jeana Garrison of the United States finished one hit clear of Italy’s Sofia Gori with a total of 40.
Garrison, 19, won individual bronze and team gold at last year’s World Junior Championships in Changwon and she used that experience to hold off the challenge of the home competitor after both had arrived at their final set of five targets level on 35, finishing without flaw as Gori missed the second of her five efforts.
Bronze went to India’s Sabeera Haris, with Spain’s Noelia Pontes Villarrubia fourth, Catarina Baicev of Portugal fifth and Italy’s Marika Patera sixth.
Riccardo Mirabile of Italy was a convincing winner of the trap men title.
Mirabile, 20, who finished seventh in the junior competition at this year’s European Championships in Lonato, finished with a total of 45, finishing five clear of the silver medallist, 18-year-old AIN athlete Ramir Nikolaev, who had topped qualifying with 122.
Bronze went to Spain’s Eduard Salichs, who finished one place ahead of Mirabile’s 20-year-old team-mate Matteo Dambrosi.
Cesar Moreno Rufo, the second Spanish athlete in the final, finished fifth, with sixth place going to Poland’s Daniel Mrozek.