The last day of the shooting schedule at the Baku 2015 European Games saw three non-Olympic mixed events occur, and the last shooting Gold medals of the 1st historical edition of the continental Games were placed around the necks of two Italian teams and one German couple.
Mixed Team Skeet
With two Skeet medals already in their pocket in these European Games, Italian shooters Valerio Luchini and Diana Bacosi entered the Mixed Team Skeet event as the obvious favorite. And they didn’t fail.
After qualifying for the semifinal behind Cyprus’ Georgios Achilleos and Andri Eleftheriou, they bested the teams of Czech Republic and France in a three-way semifinal, entering the Gold medal match with a 29-out-of-32 score. In the other semifinal, Cyprus continued to shoot solidly, prevailing over Germany and Slovakia and marking a 26 hits score.
In the final round, then, Luchini was the only athlete who shuttered all of his targets, and he led the Italian team to the Gold medal with a narrow 30-to-29 victory.
"This team event has been a very nice experiment. It's been real fun. It's also been very exciting because I've never participated in this kind of competition and it's good to feel part of a team.” Bacosi said.
"It's been a very good experience for me. But not only for me, the whole Italian shooting team collected a lot of medals in our sport as usual. We're always the strongest ones.” She concluded.
"It's a fantastic event. Very enthralling, very emotional until the end. It's unfortunate this team event is not at the Olympics. It should be because it's very interesting.” Added his teammate, Valerio Luchini.
In the Bronze medal match, France couple, Lucie Anastassiou and Anthony Terras, beat Slovakia’s Danka Bartekova and Stefan Zemko 28 hits to 25.
Mixed Team 10m Air Rifle
The first mixed Rifle/Pistol events saw another Italian couple climb on the highest step of the podium, as Niccolò Campriani and Petra Zublasing nailed a thrilling victory against Denmark’s Stine Nielsen and Steffen Olsen.
In a format that followed the trace of the Shotgun mixed team events, Italy and Denmark earned their way to the Gold medal match by winning their own semifinal group: Campriani and Zublasing bested Serbia, Norway and Hungary, concluding with a score of 249.4 points; while Denmark beat Russia, Austria and Croatia, finishing with 244.0 points.
In the Gold medal match, where 1 points was assigned after every series, the two teams spliited the first eight ones, and in the ninth and crucial one Campriani and Zublasing tallyed two great 10.4s, prevailing over Denmark’s 18.8 total points.
"It's cool to have an event like this and that we could participate in it as a real couple. I don't think there are many sports in which this can even happen.” Said a smiling Zublasing.
"The good thing is that we complement each other in life and in competition. For example, today he was way better than me in qualifications, without him I wouldn't have got into the final. Then in the final, my usual determination helped us out in grabbing gold.” She concluded.
"It's great. In the qualification round I helped her and in the semifinal and final she helped me so it was a good team effort. How many athletes can say that they won a Gold medal with their girlfriend? Not many, so that was special. Today, luckily, Petra was by my side because without her I couldn't have finished on top of the podium.” Added his teammate and boyfriend, Campriani.
In the Bronze medal match, the Russian Federation team composed by Sergey Kruglov and Daria Vdovina beat the Serbian one, put together by Andrea Arsovic and Milutin Stefanovic, with a final score of 5 points to 3.
Mixed Team 10m Air Pistol
Despite usually competing in the Rapid Fire Pistol event, German shooter Christian Reitz teamed up with her teammate Monika Karsch in the Mixed Team Air Pistol one, eventually making it to the Gold medal match, and finishing in 1st place after an exciting 9-series match.
After besting Russia, Poland and Serbia in its own semifinal group with a 237.7 points score, Team Germany faced Greece’s Anna Korakaki and Konstantinos Malgarinos, who previously bested Spain, Ukraine and Latvia with a total score of 239.6 points.
There, in the medal match, Germany jumped on an early 3-to-1 lead, only to see the Greek couple even the score at 4. In the last and deciding series, then, both Reitz and Karsch shot inside the 10th ring, claiming the 1st place and the Gold medals, the second award for both of them in Baku.
"Normally rapid fire is my main discipline and mixed team is just on top so two medals is the best result. It was a perfect end to the competition.” Reitz declared after the medal ceremony.
"I was very happy with one medal and now I have two. Now that one is Gold I am so happy.” Added his teammate Karsch.
In the Bronze medal match Russian couple Ekaterina Korshunova and Vladimir Gontcharov bested the Spanish one, composed by Pablo Carrera and Sonia Franquet, with a 5-to-4 points victory.
Tweet of the day
A winning team, a great couple, on and off the field of play.