The 22-year old Chinese shooter who had won here last year’s ISSF World Cp Final secured Gold. One third of the shooters could not participate, due to the schedule changes imposed by China’s National Mourning Day on the 22nd.
Mo Junjie of the People’s Republic of China won the Double Trap Men event, securing Gold on his home range with a total score of 191 hits, leaving his opponents four targets behind him.
The 22-year old Chinese shooter had concluded the 2009 Season by winning a Gold medal at the World Cup Final held here in Beijing, the first World Cup Final of the ISSF history to take place under a snow-fall.
Mo went through a match conditioned by some inevitable and unexpected schedule changes. As Chinese local authorities indicted a Mourning National Day for the victims of the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that hit north China, the Double Trap Final scheduled on the 21st of April had to be cancelled with only a few-hour notice. The final round was rescheduled for the 22nd, but some teams were not able to change their flight tickets and to extend their stay in China. Therefore, one third of the Double Trap athletes could not participate in the competition.
In these unusual circumstances, Mo Junjie walked into the final round in first place, with a qualification score of 146 hits. Shooting solidly on his home range, and supported by the home crowd cheering for him after each and every double, the Chinese shooter hit 45 out of 50 targets during the final, landing in first place with a total score of 191 hits. The young athlete, ranked sixth in World and holding the 2009 World Cup Title, had been participating also in the first 2010 ISSF Shotgun World Cup stage in Acapulco, last March, placing fourteenth.
Silver went to the 1996 Olympic Champion and 2000 Olympic Silver medallist Russell Mark, 46, who closed the final round in second place with a total score of 187 hits. Qualified for the final with 145 targets, the Australian champion duelled with Qatar’s Rashid Al-Athba and Kuwait’s Fehaid Aldeehani right to the last shot, making it to the second step of the podium with a total score of 187 hits and one target of advantage on the two.
Al-Athba and Aldeehani ended up the final round tied with a score of 185 hits, and had to pass through a shoot-off for Bronze. Three doubles were necessary to decide the podium placements, as Aldeehani missed one target on his third double, putting himself in fourth with a final score of 185+5 targets.
Rashid Al-Athba, 29, secured Bronze with 185+6 targets. The Qatari athlete had won a Silver and a Bronze medal throughout the 2009 ISSF World Cup Series, as well as a Silver medal at the 2009 Asian Championship held in Almaty at the end of the last season.