Trap Women - Slovakia's Stefecekova struck Title and Quota

Zuzana Stefecekova, 26, from Slovakia, is the new Trap Women World Champion, as well as the first Shotgun shooter qualified for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Stefecekova, the Silver medallist of the 2008 Beijing’s Games, won the Trap Women final round at the 50th ISSF World Championship, the first London 2012 Olympic Qualifying event, with a total score of 91 (72+19) hits.

The Slovakian athlete secured the brightest medal and the qualification spot at the very last shot, outdoing the Chinese champion Liu Yingzi, who dropped the last target putting herself in second place with a total score of 89 (72+17) targets.

This is the first World Championship title won by the Zuzana Stefecekova, who has been competing in eight ISSF World Championships editions since 1999, winning two Bronze medals, in 2002 and 2003.

The fight for the Bronze and the third Quota turned into an Italian Drama. The title defender, the 18-year old prodigy Jessica Rossi of Italy, did not play her best final today, missing several targets throughout the first part of the competition.

To climb on the third step of the podium and to grab the last Olympic Quota Place to be awarded in this event she had to outdo her teammate Deborah Gelisio by 3 to 2 hits in a shoot-off.

Rossi, who had been elected 2009 Shooter of the Year by the International Sport Press Association AIPS, finished today’s match in third with a total score of 87 (71+16) targets, + 3 targets scored in the shoot-off. At the same time, by dropping the last shoot-off target, the 2000 Olympic Silver medallist Gelisio ended up in fourth place with a total score of 87 (71+16) targets, + 2 targets in the shoot-off, missing the Olympic Quota Place by one target.

North Korea’s Yong Hui Pak closed in fifth place with 86 (71+15) hits, while Japan’s Yukie Nakayama (fourth at the 2008 Olympic Games) finished in sixth and last place with a total score of 85 (71+14) targets.