Spain’s 20-year-old Andres Garcia put himself in line for his first Olympic appearance as he earned a Paris 2024 trap men quota place with victory at the Final Olympic Qualification Championship Shotgun in Doha.
Garcia pictured), world junior champion in 2021 and European junior champion a year later, offered further evidence of his huge talent as he held off Italy’s 43-year-old Mauro De Filippis, already in possession of an Olympic quota place, to win gold at the Lusail Shooting Range by 46-45.
All except the Italian went into this tense final eligible to win a quota place, and the first to secure his country that honour was Turkey’s 41-year-old Oguzhan Tuzun as he secured third place ahead of Malta’s Gianluca Chetcuti.
De Filippis, world silver medallist in 2019 and gold medallist at last year’s European Games, had topped qualification with 124 – just one shy of the maximum.
And he brought all his experience to bear in the final sequence of five shots as he registered five hits, leaving his young opponent, whose two-hit lead had been diminished by a miss with his third effort, needing to score his last shot to win.
Garcia did just that, transforming the clay into a smoke of pink before raising his shotgun triumphantly.
The tension had told early in windy conditions and 33C heat as the first two athletes out were those making their first appearance in an international final – 18-year-old Arian Kumi, US-born and representing Albania, who was first to make an exit, and Slovenia’s 31-year-old Matjaz Lepen.
“It was exciting,” Garcia told ISSF TV. “It was very, very good shoot for me. I did not think I would leave with a quota place. But now I will work to win the Olympics!”
Tuzun added: “This was not an easy competition, very dangerous, with five chasing just two quota places.
I shot well in qualifying with 122, but after I had taken the first quota place I made some mistakes. However, I am happy inside. Today was my day.”