The young Italian shooter topped her success at the last European Championship by claiming the World Champion title at the ISSF Shotgun World Championship in Maribor.
17-year old Italian shooter Jessica ROSSI became the new Trap Women World Champion, shooting-off the Olympic Champion Satu MAKELA-NUMMELA and the 2001 World Champion Irina LARICHEVA.
ROSSI played an outstanding competition, making it into the final in fifth position with a qualification score of 71 targets and then climbing to the top with 21 hits in the final, for a total score of 92 targets.
“I won the European Championship just two weeks ago, I did not expect to win again today!” Said Jessica ROSSI, the young phenomenon who collected a continental and a world title within fifteen days.
"I started shooting when I was 12"
“I started shooting when I was 12-year old, my parents introduced me to shooting, but I had never though I could reach these results, in those days...” the Italian shooter said right after the last competition shot. This year, next to the World and European titles, ROSSI won two ISSF World Cup Silver medals in Cairo and Minsk.
ROSSI had started this morning’s qualification with a weak round, and she had to pass through a shoot-off to proceed to the medal match “I don’t know what happened this morning. I started in the worst way. After the second qualification series I was far from the lead. I told to my self I had to shoot a 25 in the last series, and I made it”.
Rossi's next aim: the Games
ROSSI climbed up from the fifth place after the qualification up to the first place shooting precisely, while her opponents missed numerous clays “I tried to concentrate, I did not watch the others, I focused in myself. I did not even understand that the other finalists were missing… I cannot believe this is true!”
The 17-year old Italian shooter is now looking to the future. Moving the focus to London 2012, Jessica said to be ready for the next challenge she is going to face starting from 2010 “I will try my best to qualify for the next Games. After the European and the World Championships, I am staring at London!”
Laricheva (RUS) and Makela-Nummela (FIN) in second and third place.
Climbing to the podium, ROSSI overtook two of the world’s most experienced Trap shooters.
The Olympic Champion of Beijing 2008 Satu MAKELA-NUMMELA, 38, from FINLAND, started the match with the highest qualification score of 74 hits, equalling a World Record. During the final, she lost her concentration, dropping ten targets and finishing with a disappointing total score of 89 (74+15) hits and a Bronze medal.
The 2001 World Champion Irina LARICHEVA of Russia, 44-year old, scored 17 targets in the final, for a total score of 90 (73+17) hits, and placed in second winning Silver. The Russian shooter was coming closer to ROSSI when, on her 23rd final clay, she forgot to reload the shotgun before calling the target. Missing the taregt, she slid in second place with no chances to recover from the frustrating mistake.
San Marino’s Alessandra PERILLI, a medal winner of the 2009 ISSF World Cup in San Marino, finished in fourth with a score of 88 +3 targets, outdoing in a shoot-off Lebanon’s Ray BASSIL, fifth with 88 +2 targets.
The Olympic Silver medallist of Beijing, Zuzana STEFECEKOVA of Slovakia, 25, finished her competition in sixth place with a total score of 87 (71+16) targets.
Rossi lifted Italy on the team podium with a new World Record
Guided by the young champion ROSSI, the Italian team (Jessica ROSSI, Deborah GELISIO and Giulia IANNOTTI) ended up in first place, earning the team Gold medal with a total score of 211 targets, a new World Record.
Great Britain's Shona MARSHALL, Charlotte KERWOOD and Abbey BURTON secured the team Silverw with 207 targets, while the team Bronze went to the smallest Republic of the World, San Marino (Alessandra PERILLI, Daniela DEL DIN, Francesca SPADONI), that finsihed in third with an overall score of 204 hits.