Super 25. The favourite discovered: Shotgun Women Events

Two days. Only two days left to the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games of Beijing. The 8th of August the World will stop, to follow the celebrations that will open the most important sport-festival. The athletes will parade into the Olympic Stadium, the so-called “nest”. But one of the ladies of the shotgun will miss it: Deborah GELISIO of Italy (one of the most favorite in the Trap Women Event) is not going to take part in the Opening Ceremony, she said. She suffered for a not specified illness upon her arrival in Beijing, and she had to pass a night in the local hospital. She is out now, but she decided not to come to the opening “to rest before the competition”. She will have to fight, on the day of the competition, against the Super 25 Ranking leader, the Russian expert Irina LARICHEVA, which has never been in better shape before.
The Skeet Women Event sees another Italian shooter on the lead, the 30-year old Chiara CAINERO, who became a professional shooter right before the previous Games of Athens 2004 and now would like to benefit from these four years of full-time shooter experience. Her goal is the Gold, but the road that leads to the brightest medal is difficult. The home athlete Ning WEI has the home court advantage on her side, and an excellent shooting technique, as the same CAINERO admitted.

Skeet Women Event

The leader: Chiara CAINERO
Nation: Italy (ITA)
Year of Birth: 1978
Super 25 Ranking: 1st 
World Ranking (01/08/2008): 3rd
OG Athens ’04 Placement: 8th
Best OG Placement: 8th (Athens 2004)

“Training, training and training” this is the motto of the Italian athlete Chiara CAINERO, 30, the leading skeet shooter who climbed all the most important international podiums of the last three years. Strong determination, excellent shooting skills and hard preparation are the ingredients that made of her one of the most competitive international shooters, and the leader of the Super 25 Ranking for the Skeet Women Event. Eighth at the Games of Athens 2004, CAINERO became a professional shooter in the last years, gaining her most prestigious medals in Europe. She won a valuable a Silver medal at the 2006 World Championships of Zagreb and a Bronze medal at the following 2007 World Championship of Nicosia. The ISSF World Cup Series also presented her numerous satisfactions: she turned out to be a frequent-finalist during the 2006 season, winning two Bronzes during the regular season, and then winning the 2006 ISSF World Cup Final held in Granada. 2008 also turned out to be a positive season for the Italian shooter, who gained a Bronze medal at the World Cup stage of Suhl, Germany, and several placements.
CAINERO will not be alone on the ranges of the Olympic Venue of Beijing: there she will meet the competitors that challenged her during the last four years: Christine BRINKER of Germany stood on international podiums near by Cainero more then once during the 2007 season, as well as Danka BARTEKOVA of Slovakia did in 2006.  But the opponent CAINERO would like to defeat the most is the home athlete Ning WEI, the Silver medallist of Athens 2004 and current number one in the World Rank that follows her in the Super 25 Ranking by a few points. Yes, the battle is announced to be tough in the Skeet Women competition.

Super 25 – Skeet Women:

Trap Women Event

The leader: Irina LARICHEVA
Nation: Russian Federation (RUS)
Year of Birth: 1964
Super 25 Ranking: 1st
World Ranking (01/08/2008): 4th 
OG Athens ’04 Placement: 13th
Best OG Placement: 13th (Athens 2004)

Irina LARICHEVA of the Russian Federation, 43, is the Super 25 Ranking favorite of the Trap Women Event. The Russian shooter has a long experience in this event, and has been one of the most consistent Trap shooter of the last eight years. Winner of the 1999 European Championships, LARICHEVA gained her first World-level medal in 2001, when she was awarded Gold at the ISSF World Championships of Cairo and at the ISSF World Cup of Lonato. In the following years, she has been always competing between the bests, entering five editions of the ISSF World Cup Finals, an event that presented her three Bronze medals (in 2002, 2005 and 2006). Being a multi-medalist of the ISSF World Cup Series, LARICHEVA only missed one goal, the Olympic Final of Athens 2004: the Russian athlete did not compete at her best there, finishing far behind the medalists in thirteenth place. This time, she is walking into the Games as one of the favorites to win a medal: during the 2008 shooting season she has reached excellent placements, and stood on two out of four ISSF World Cup podiums. LARICHEVA hadn’t even entered the first Super 25 Ranking, published by the ISSF NEWS magazine at the beginning of the year, and now she is leading in front of the ex-number-one, the Italian shooter Deborah GELISIO.
The strong-minded GELISIO is said to be the hardest opponent to beat in the Trap Women competition. Numbers, ranking and statistic of this 32-year old shooter are impressive, but her best presentation is that Silver medal won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the now discontinued Double Trap Women Event. Changing event, style, preparation, was a challenge that turned out to be difficult for most of her opponents, but she showed that a top shooter remains a top shooter even when rules change: “a target is a target, you have to brake it, no matter how you do it” she uses to say.
But GELISIO is not going to compete at the top of her conditions. She suffered for a not specified illness upon her arrival in Beijing, a few days ago, and she had to be recovered at the local hospital. Now she said to be recovered, and announced she will not take part in the Opening Ceremony to rest before the competition. Will this problem affect her Olympic performance?

Super 25 – Trap Women: