TRAP WOMEN
Chinese Taipei’s 43-year-old Lin Yi-chun is due to contest her fifth Olympics knowing that the sport still offers her golden opportunities.
Last year the three-times Asian champion won a second world title in Baku 21 years after winning her first, in the double trap. Yi-chun scored 40, beating Italy’s London 2012 gold medallist Jessica Rossi – seeking a fourth individual world title - by one shot.
Meanwhile Rossi has put together a promising preparation for Paris, taking gold at the Rabat World Cup and going in search of a second Olympic medal world-ranked fourth.
Top of the world list is Spain’s Fatima Galvez, who won gold in the now discontinued trap mixed team event at Tokyo 2020 with Alberto Fernandez and is looking a very good bet to earn an individual medal this time around.
Galvez concluded 2023 by taking silver at the World Cup Final in Doha in unfamiliar floodlit conditions behind another strong Paris contender, Italy’s Silvana Stanco, with Rossi beating Poland’s Sandra Bernal to bronze with a late surge.
The 37-year-old Spaniard, who won the world title in 2015,has underlined her rising ambitions this season by taking silver behind Kazakhstan’s Paris prospect Mariya Dmitriyenko at the Cairo World Cup before winning the European title in Lonato and then, at the concluding World Cup in Lonato, taking silver.
But she will be well aware of the threat posed to her by the defending champion, Slovakia’s 40-year-old Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova, who laid down a big marker for the impending Games In winning the Final Olympic qualifier in Doha and then beating Galvez to gold at the Lonato World Cup.
Stefecekova has spoken wryly about the expectation of an automatic repeat performance as far as her home supporters are concerned, but her form gives her genuine hope for such an outcome.
Other potential medallists include world No.2 Rumesya Kaya of Turkey, San Marino’s world No.3 Alessandra Perilli, who won bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Games, and fifth-placed Kathrin Murche of Germany, who won world bronze last year.
Another talent to watch will be Lebanon’s 35-year-old Ray Bassil, who won the Baku World Cup and is world-ranked ninth.
Britain’s hopes will rest with 20-year-old Lucy Hall, who won European silver in 2002 and earned World Cup gold last year.
The United States field Rachel Tozier, a Staff Sergeant in the US Army, and Ryann Phillips.
San Marino will be represented once again by the woman who earned bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Games, Alessandra Perilli, who has indicated her readiness to challenge for a podium place once again by taking bronze and the Cairo World Cup and silver at the Rabat World Cup.
Asia Olympic Qualification,Champs Shotgun – Kuwait City Jan
Liu Wan-Yu (CHN), Zhang Xinqiu (CHN), Mariya Dmitriyenko (KAZ)
ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun Cairo Jan-Feb
Mariya Dmitriyenko (KAZ), Fatima Galvez (ESP), Alessandra Perilli (SMR)
ISSF World Cup Shotgun Rabat Feb
Jessica Rossi (ITA), Alessandra Perilli (SMR), Ryann Phillips (USA)
Olympic Qualification CAT XIV Shotgun Champs Santo Domingo Feb-March
Ana Soto Abril (GUA), Alejandro Ramirez Caballero (MEX), Ryann Phillips (USA)
ISSF Final Olympic Qualification Championship Shotgun Doha April
Zuzana Stefecekova (SVK), Laetisha Scanlon (AUS), Penny Smith (AUS)
ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun Baku May
Ray Bassil (LBN), Penny Smith (AUS), Erica Sessa (ITA)
European Championships Shotgun Lonato May
Fatima Galvez (ESP), Kathrin Murche (GER), Rumesya Kaya (TUR)
ISSF World Cup Shotgun Lonato June
Zuzana Stefecekova (SVK), Fatima Galvez (ESP), Catherine Skinner (AUS)