Three Olympic Gold medallists could not beat Adam Vella, at today’s Trap Men Final. He claimed Gold with four targets of advantage on Russia’s Alipov and USA’s Hadden.
The 2004 Olympic Bronze medallist of Athens Adam Vella of Australia won the Trap Men competition at the ISSF World Cup in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun events in Beijing, today.
The 38-year old Australian shooter finished atop of the podium with a total score of 143 hits, leaving his opponents four targets behind him. Walking into the final round in first place with 121 qualification targets, Vella was not bothered by the numerous “no birds” occurring during the final round, and did not lose his concentration. Zeroing in, he shattered 22 clays, securing Gold with a total score of 143 hits. Shooting next to him, Olympic Champions of the 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Games could not reach him, today.
Missing two clays within the first four final targets, the 2004 Olympic Champion and 2008 Olympic Bronze medallist Alexey Alipov, 34, had to fight against USA’s Ryan Hadden, 30, to secure today’s Silver. The Russian athlete made it to the second step of the podium with a total score of 139 (120+19) hits, by a narrow advantage of one target over Hadden, who secured Bronze with 138 (118+20) hits.
The final round then was closed by a shoot-off for the fourth place involving three Olympic Gold medals. The 1996 and 2000 Olympic Champion Michael Diamond of Australia, 37, met and beat the 2008 Olympic Champion of Beijing David Kostelecky of Czech Republic 8 to 7 hits. Diamond, currently ranked first in the World Ranking, had won the 2009 ISSF World Cup Final held here in Beijing.
Following them in sixth and last place, Kuwait’s Naser Meqlad could not find his rhythm during the final round, probably due to the numerous “no-birds”. The 27-year old athlete, who had made it into the final with the highest qualification score of 121 targets, hit 13 clays during the final closing with a total score of 134 hits.