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Finals Trap Men

Cernogoraz (CRO) surprises all and pockets the Trap Men Gold

XXX Olympic Games · London, GBR

Giovanni Cernogoraz (CRO) took the last gold medal on offer in shooting at the London 2012 Olympic Games when he won the men's trap at the Royal Artillery Barracks on Monday.

The world No.22 Cernogoraz qualified sixth for the final and started challenging the first-placed qualifier, Michael Diamond of Australia, who had a three-point margin. The Croatian kept smashing every target in the single-barrel 25 targets final session until he missed the 15th target. 

But Cernogoratz never lost his concentration after the miss, fiercely chasing down the shooters ahead of him. He caught Diamond, the two-time Olympic gold medallist, after hitting the 21th target and then blasted the rest of the targets. He posted the highest score of the session - 24 points out of 25 - and finished the final with a total of 146 (122+24) points.

But he had to face a gold medal shoot-off with Massimo Fabbrizi (ITA), who had also earned the same total (123+23).

Cernogoraz  grabbed gold when Fabbrizi missed his sixth shoot-off target, becoming the first Croatian shooter to win an Olympic medal in this event. The Italian pocketed silver at his first Olympic Games and both their total scores equalled the Final Olympic record.

"I am very satisfied. I worked for four years. This was my chance and I took it. In the final I gave everything I had. I have made many sacrifices and this is the payback for that." Fabbrizi said, in spite of all.

"This gold medal will be very good for me, my family and the whole country. It is just fantastic. I was crying before the shoot-off started because I realised that at least a silver medal was 100% for me. I did not expect gold." Giovanni Cernogoraz said, after winning Gold.

A shoot-off for Bronze also kept the spectators’ breath.

Diamond went through to the final as the outright leader after equalling the world record with a perfect 125 points, but he then missed five targets in the final.

Diamond and Fehaid Aldeehani of Kuwait finished the final session at 145 points, one point behind the top two. The Kuwaiti snatched bronze after the Australian failed to hit target at his fourth attempt.

"I was under a lot of pressure in the shoot-off. I was up against the world champion, one of the best shooters in this event and the hot favourite for gold. But I was confident that I could match him and just concentrated on hitting each target." Aldeehani said.

It was another nightmare for Diamond, who had also missed the bronze medal in the shoot-off with Alexey Alipov (RUS) at the Beijing 2008 Games.

MDD / ONS

 

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