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Final Skeet Men

Skeet Men – Shomin grabbed the Title at the 22nd shoot-off clay

50th ISSF World Championship All Events · Munich, GER

Italy’s Ennio Falco won his fourth Silver medal after a perfect match. Achilleos shot-off his teammate Androu to win the Bronze, while the current Olympic Champion Hancock secured an Olympic pass at the last, breathtaking shot.

Valery Shomin of the Russian Federation is the new Skeet World Champion. The 39-year old athlete won the title and an Olympic Quota place after an outstanding final, by outdoing Italy’s Ennio Falco at the 22nd target in a spine-chilling shoot-off for Gold.

Shomin and Falco fought neck and neck since the first competition shot. Both the shooters qualified for the final round with the same qualification score, 124 hits out of 125 possible targets, and started shooting-off from the first station.

Duelling shoulder and shoulder throughout the eight stations, the two athletes played a perfect match, hitting all of the 25 final targets, and finished the round as they had started: tied in the lead with a score of 149 total hits.

The following shoot-off (a direct-elimination tie-breaker conducted on the fourth station - the first who misses, goes out), turned in favour of Shomin, who climbed upon the highest step of the podium with 149 targets + 22 hits in the shoot-of, while Falco was left in second with 149+21 hits.

Shomin, ranked sixth in the world, finished in the spot-light every four years. He had indeed won two ISSF World Championship silver medals in 2002 and 2006, in Lahti (FIN) and Zegreb (CRO).

“After two Silver medals, it’s great to finally win a title!” Said the Russian athlete after the match “I would like to dedicate this victory to my father Kim, who passed away last April, while I was out for a shooting competition.” Continued Shomin “I was not expecting a victory here in Munich, but I am glad that I made it, especially thinking about the Olympic qualification.”

Italy’s Ennio Falco secured his fourth World Championship Silver medal. The 1996 Olympic Champion could not defeat the odds. Since 1983, when he started competing, the Italian shooter has won every title - from the Olympic Gold of Atlanta to five European titles, from four World Cup Final editions to 10 World Cup Gold medals - but the world tile.

Unfortunately I did not make it. For the fourth time. We shot an almost perfect competition, today – said Falco after the match – 149 hits out of 150 targtes is a great result. I knew I had to be perfect, but I could not do more then this. We were tied right to the end, and I am proud of what I have done here today!” Said the 42-year old champion “I am happy with the Olympic Quota Place, this makes it easier for the next year. I knew this was going to be a long season, and I tried to peak to be competitive here in Munich, to qualify for the next Games at the first given chance, as I have always done since nineties!” concluded Falco, who has been competing in every Olympics since 1996.

The Bronze medal went to Cyprus’ Georgios Achielleos, the 2007 World Champion, who defeated his teammate Antonakis Andreou in a shoot-off for the podium. The two shooters, both trained by the 2004 Olympic Champion Andrea Benelli of Italy, started the final round with an equal score of 123 clays, and cleared the eighth station ending up with a total score of 148 hits. It was then the 29-year old Achilleos (leading the world ranking until this morning) who climbed on the podium with 10 shoot-off targets to Andreou’s 9 hits. The two teammates duelled on the range but celebrated together after the final: they both won the Olympic Quota Places for the Skeet event at the 2012 Games.

The fifth and last Olympic Quota place was taken by the Olympic Champion of Beijing 2008, USA’s Vincent Hancock, who placed in fifth after outdoing Denmark’s Andres Golding 8 to 7 hits in a shoot-off. Hancock, who had qualified for the medal match with 123 hits and had then missed a pool on the last double of station four, closed the match with a total score of 147+7 points. 

The Team’s Gold Medal went to Cyprus, thanks to the great performances of the two finalists Achilleos and Andreou, and to their teammate Kyriacos Chritoforou, who finsihed on the podium with an overall score of 364 hits. Falco’s Italy finished in second on the teams’ podium, with an overall score of 363 targets hit by Ennio and his two teammates Angelo Moscariello and Velerio Luchini. Following in third place, the last medal of the 50th ISSF World Championship in Munich went to the French team, on the podium with 362 targets scored by Anthony Terras, Eric Delaunay and Edouard Poumaillou.


Marco Dalla Dea

 

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