The 2016 ISSF Junior World Cup closed today in Suhl (GER), as the Skeet Men Junior and the Trap Men Junior finals were preceded by a fresh and innovative team event.
10m Mixed Gender Team
A new, original event called 10m Mixed Gender Team opened the last day of competitions at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl.
Five teams, composed by one Air Rifle and one Air Pistol shooter, were all positioned together at the 10m line and started the final by shooting four series of five shots each,
with the scores summing up to determine the ranking. After those first four series, a fifth one of two shots was fired to define the first elimination, with the remaining ones decided by the following and conclusive three shots.
Four of the six medals up for grabs in this event went to Ukraine, who placed both of their teams on the podium: Ukraine 2’s Oleksandr Samostrol and Anna Ilina pocketed the Gold medals, finishing with 501.7 points, while Pavlo Krepostniak and Viktoriya Sukhorukova of Ukraine 1 finished 2nd with 501.0.
France 2, composed by Gauderic Pairoux and Judith Gomez, completed the podium with 480.2 points, collecting the Bronze medal. Despite concluding in 3rd place overall, Rifle shooter Judith Gomez recorded the best individual score of the event with 246.8 points.
4th left outside of the podium after staying for most of the match in 3rd place, placed India, with Pratik Borse and Malaika Goel who finished with 457.8 total points.
In 5th place, exceptionally composed by an international couple, Germany 1 concluded with 435.0 points, as Uzbekistan’s Rifle shooter Sukhrobjon Mirzajonov and Germany’s Pistol shooter Michelle Skeries recorded 219.1 and 215.9 points respectively.
Skeet Men Junior
The penultimate official event of the ISSF Junior World Cup crowned Germany’s Yannick Hofmann as the Gold medallist of the Skeet Men event. Hofmann, who entered last year’s Junior Cup semifinal, placing 6th, nailed the first international Gold medal of his young career.
In the Gold medal match, where he and Cyprus’ Nicolas Vasiliou entered with an almost-perfect 15-out-of-16 semifinal score, Hofmann grabbed the lead midway through the final, surviving a late miss and finishing with 13 target hits against his rival’s 12.
On his fourth and final station, in fact, Vasiliou missed his very last target, and he failed to tie the score at 13, and surrendering to Hofmann.
In the Bronze medal match, Alexey Belov of the Russian Federation bested Denmark’s Mikkel Petersen, who also missed his very last target, letting his Russian rival claim the Bronze medal with the final score of 14-hits-to-13.
Out of the medal matches, finishing 5th with 13 semifinal targets placed Denmark’s Emil Kjelgaard Petersen, followed by Great Britain’s Jack Fairclough, 6th with 12.
Denmark’s two finalist alongside their teammate Alexander Karlsen, secured the team’s Gold medal, followed in 2nd place by Finland’s Aleksi Ahokas, Sami Aaltonen and Esko Tiainen. Belov, Aleksandr Krasnyatov and Mikhail Sharapov of Russia completed the team’s podium of the Skeet Men Junior event.
For the Skeet Men Junior complete results click here.
Trap Men Junior
Maxim Kabatskiy of the Russian Federation pocketed the last individual Gold medal up for grabs in Suhl, where the ISSF Junior World Cup concluded today.
In the Gold medal match Kabatskiy, whose previous best result was a 6th place he nailed at the 2015 ISSF World Championship in Lonato (ITA), faced and beat Czech Republic’s Josef Navrtil, who placed 56th in the same competition.
Despite missing his very last target, Kabastkiy, who previously concluded the semifinal with the highest score, maintained his narrow lead on Navratil, who also missed his last clay and failed to match his rival’s score of 11 hits, concluding with 10.
In the previous Bronze medal match, Australian shooter Jack Wallace, Junior Silver medallist at the 2014 World Championship in Granada (ESP), beat France’s Damien Ichard with the final score of 13 hits to 8.
A four-way shoot-off was needed at the end of the semifinal, as Navratil, Ichard, Wallace and Yang Kun-Pi of Chinese Taipei all finished with 11 hits. In the tie-breaker, Yang missed first, placing 5th with 11+0 target hits.
Eliminated after the semifinal round, Bulgaria’s Ivan Georgiev concluded 6th with 10 target hits.
On the team’s podium, Australia’s Wallace was joined by brothers Samuel John and Adam Joshua Bylsma on the highest step, followed by Italy’s Simone Spina, Simone D’Ambrosio and Nino Cuomo, who pocketed the Silver medals, and by France’s Ichard, Jason Picaud and Theo Denis, 3rd and winners of the team’s Bronze medal.
For the Trap Men Junior complete results click here.
Final medal standings
Italy concluded the ISSF Junior World Cup atop of the overall medal standings, thanks to a combination of 7 Gold medals, 4 Silver ones and 1 Bronze one.
The Russian Federation, despite securing the highest number of medal in the whole competition, followed in 2nd place with 5 Golds, 6 Silvers and 9 Bronzes. Germany, the host country, placed 3rd with 5 Gold, 3 Silver and 3 Bronze medals.