Italy’s men’s Trap shooter Matteo Marongiu — he junior silver medalist at last year’s ISSF Shotgun World Championship — climbed atop the podium at the Sydney International Shooting Centre, where the ISSF Junior World Cup is currently taking place.
To do so, the 18-year-old bested People’s Republic of China’s Ouyang Yiliu (18) in an exciting tie-breaking shoot-off for the gold medal. Both Marongiu and Ouyang, in fact, crushed 39 of their 50 final targets, and it took two more for the Italian youngster to secure his first international gold.
Walking on the 2nd step of the podium, then, Ouyang both secured the first international medal of his career and his country’s sixth individual medal in the competition.
The podium was completed by India’s Vivaan Kapoor — who previously finished 18th at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Porpetto (ITA), his only other ISSF start. The 16-year-old Indian shooter secured bronze with 30 hits out of 40 clays.
Eliminated in 4th position because of his lower bib number, Chinese Taipei’s Yang Kun-Pi (19) nailed his best placement out of three Junior World Cup starts, hitting 26 out of 35 targets.
He was followed by Australia’s 19-year-old Nathan Steven Argiro, who placed 5th with 21 hits out of 30 targets, after qualifying for the final with the highest score: 115 out of 125.
The first shooter eliminated from the match was the People’s Republic of China’s second finalist — 19-year-old Li Cheng — who crushed 15 targets out of 25 and finished in 6th place.
The People’s Republic of China’s Li, Ouyang and Yu Haicheng secured the team gold medal, while Australia’s Argiro, Mitchell Iles-Crevatin and Adam Joshua Bylsma took silver and India’s Kapoor, Lakshay Lakshay and Ali Aman Elahi won bronze.
The ISSF Junior World Cup in Sydney will continue tomorrow with three more finals: the 10m Air Pistol Women Junior, taking place at 11:45 am (UTC+11:00), the 10m Air Pistol Men Junior, taking place at 2:00 pm, and the Trap Mixed Team Junior, scheduled at 4:15 pm.
The competition will be streamed live on the ISSF website, on the Federation’s Livestream channel and on its official Facebook page.
Live results of the competition, news and updates will be available on www.issf-sports.org and on all ISSF social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Weibo and Youku.