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Road to Al Ain: Athletes to watch at the 2nd ISSF World Cup of the season

ISSF World Cup Shotgun · Al Ain, UAE

After the season’s start in Acapulco, a look at the favorite athletes for the second stage

Here is a look at the athletes who will possibly win medals at the upcoming Shotgun World Cup Stage in Al Ain, UAE.


Skeet Men


Nasser Al-Attiya
, 44, is not only a shooter but also a driver who just won his second Dakar Rally title last January. He will make his first appearance of the season in Al Ain.

Cyprus' Georgios Achilleos, 34, was just 16th in Acapulco. Achilleos won his last World Cup Stage in Lonato, Italy three years ago. He has not won any medal ever since. He was 80th at last year's World Championship in Granada, where he only hit 112 targets.

Spain's Juan Jose Aramburu, 33, was 18th in Acapulco. Aramburu won the World Championship and equaled a World Record at Belgrade 2011. He also took over the 2013 World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi.

Jan Sychra of the Czech Republic was 56th in Acapulco. He won last season's World Cup Stage in Munich with a perfect performance— Sychra hit all of the 15 targets in the final, after qualifying with 123 targets.

Norway's Tore Brovold, 44, was 37th in Acapulco. Brovold is an Olympic hero. He won silver at Beijing 2008. Brovold has since pocketed six World Cup medals, as well as three World Cup Final silver medals. He also won two World Championship medals—Zagred 2006, Belgrade 2011. Brovold’s teammate Tom Beier Jensen was 34th in Acapulco. Jensen, 25, was 19th at the Granada World Championship.

Two-time Olympic Gold Medallist Vincent Hancock of the USA won gold in Acapulco. Hancock, 27, had not won any World Cup medal in the last season, and he only was 9th at the Granada World Championship.

Skeet Women

China’s Wei Ning, 32, was fifth in Acapulco, just behind her teammate Wei Meng. Wei Ning was an Olympic Silver Medalist at both London 2012 and Athens 2004. Wei also won three World Championship silver medals—Nicosia 2007, Munich 2010, Belgrade 2011, and a gold at Nicosia 2003. She won three World Cup Final, and eight World Cup Stage titles, as well as the 2010 edition of the Asian Shooting Games.

Danka Bartekova of Slovakia, 30, wasn’t in Acapulco. She was an Olympic Bronze Medallist at London 2012, and she also won bronze at the Granada World Championship.

Andri Eleftheriou of Cyprus, 31, was fourth in Acapulco. She won her latest World Cup medal in her home country, at Nicosia 2013. There, she had also equaled the World Record.

Great Britain's Amber Hill, 17, was 28th in Acapulco. There she had become the youngest World Cup gold medallist in the ISSF history in 2013.

Diana Bacosi, Katiuscia Spada, and Chiara Cainero will be the favorite athletes in the Italian team.

Bacosi, 31, was tenth in Acapulco. She was a World Cup Final bronze medallist at Abu Dhabi 2013—in the same year she won silver in Acapulco. Spada, 33, was 17th in Acapulco. She won the 2010 World Cup Final in Izmir, Turkey. Cainero, 36, was eleventh in Acapulco. She was an Olympic Gold Medallist at Beijing 2008.

Germany's Christine Wenzel, 33, was 18th in Acapulco. She won the Women's Skeet World Title in Abu Dhabi in 2013, just five weeks after taking over the ISSF Shotgun World Championship. Last year, she won bronze at the Almaty World Cup Stage.

USA's Kimberly Rhode, 35, won gold in Acapulco. She has been winning Olympic medals since 1996 —gold in Atlanta, Athens, London; silver in Beijing; bronze in Sydney. She didn't make the podium at the latest Granada World Championship, as she came 7th.

Trap Men

Australia’s Jack Wallace, 17, was a World Championship silver medallist in Granada last year—he was only 19th in the competition’s previous edition, twelve months earlier in Lima. Wallace also won gold at the Oceania Championships in Sydney in 2013. He wasn’t in Acapulco.

Giovanni Cernogoraz of Croatia, 32, didn’t start his competition in Acapulco, although he was supposed to. Cernogoraz won gold at the London 2012 Olympic Games. The only time he won a World Cup medal was in 2011, when he took gold in Beijing, China.

Croatia will hope for the Glasnovic brothers, who will compete for the first time this season. Josip Glasnovic, 31, won two World Cup stage silver medals—Lonato 2010, Nicosia 2013. In Lonato, he also won bronze at a World Championship in 2005. Anton Glasnovic, 34, was a silver medallist at last year’s World Championship in Lima.

Giovanni Pellielo, 45, was not in Acapulco. He is a three-time Olympic Medallist—bronze at Sydney 2000, silver at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. Pellielo won the 2013 World Championship in Lima.

Kuwait’s Fehaid Aldeehani, 48, was 14th in Acapulco (and fourth in the Double Trap event, which he also took part in). Aldeehani, 48, won bronze at the Olympic Games both at Sydney 2000 and at London 2012.

Great Britain's Aaron Heading, 27, was 10th in Acapulco. He won a World Cup gold at Al Ain 2013, when he overcame Italy's Pellielo, a 7-time World Cup champion. Heading also won an European Championship in Maribor in 2006.

Russia’s Alexey Alipov, 39, was not in Acapulco. Alipov is a two-time Olympic Medallist—gold at Athens 2004, bronze at Beijing 2008. He is a 20-time World Cup stage medallist.

Trap Women


Laetisha Scanlan of Australia, 24, won silver
in Acapulco. Scanlan a World Cup gold in each of the two previous seasons—Tucson in 2014, Al Ain in 2013. She is a two-time Oceania Continental Championship medallist.

Jessica Rossi, 23, was seventh in Acapulco. Rossi went perfect at London 2012 as she both won the Gold Medal and set a New World Record—she hit 99 out of 100 targets in the event. She then won the World Championship title at Lima 2013, but was only 8th the next year in Granada. Her teammate, 22- year-old Silvana Stanco, was 27th in Acapulco.

Finland's Satu Makela-Nummela, 44, was 28th in Acapulco. She was an Olympic Gold Medallist at Beijing 2008. She then won the Women's Trap title six years later in Beijing as well.

Charlotte Kerwood of Great Britain, 29, was ninth in Acapulco. She was a World Cup Final gold medallist at Abu Dhabi 2013. Kerwood is a three-time World Cup medallist.

San Marino’s Arianna Perilli was fifth in Acapulco; her sister Alessandra was 17th. Arianna, 36, is a three-time European Championship medallist—she won in Sipoo, Belgrade, and Maribor. Alessandra, 26, is a four-time World Cup gold medallist—including last year's competition in Munich.

Corey Cogdell of the USA, 28, won gold in Acapulco. She was an Olympic Bronze Medallist at Beijing 2008. She has also won four World Cup medals—one of them was a silver in Acapulco, in 2010.

Double Trap Men

China’s Wang Hao, 38, was 26th in Acapulco; he now has a chance to improve his seasonal  record in Al Ain. Wang, a silver medallist at last year's World Cup Final in Gabala, had had an amazing 2013—he then won two silver medals, in Al Ain and in Granada, and a bronze medal at the Asian Shooting Championship in Almaty, Kazakhstan.


Li Jun, 29, is one of Wang’s teammates. He wasn’t there in Acapulco. Li’s latest medals date back to 2011—gold at a World Championship in Belgrade, bronze at a World Cup stage in Beijing.



Italy's Daniele Di Spigno, 40, was
11th in Acapulco. He is a 15-time World Cup medallist. Di Spigno has also won one World Cup Final, four World Championships, and seven European Championships.


Russia's Vasily Mosin, 42, was
10th in Acapulco. He was an Olympic Bronze Medallist at London 2012. Mosin then won the 2013 World Cup Final Title in Abu Dhabi.



Mosin’s teammate, 41-year-old Vitaly Fokeev, was
eighth in Acapulco. Fokeev won twelve World Cup medals. Plus, he won one World Cup Final—Granada 2006. In that same year he also won the World Championship in Zagreb, Croatia.


Once again, the United States will count on Jeffrey Holguin and Walton Heller.


Holguin, 36, won
gold in Acapulco. He is a six-time World Cup medallist, and he has won the World Cup Final title in Gabala last year.


Eller, 32, was
sixth in Acapulco. He is an eight-time World Cup medallist, and he has won gold at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Alessandro Ceschi

 

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