He started with a wild card, to finish upon the highest podium of the 2010 ISSF World Cup Season.
“Happy Ending” is probably the sentence that better describes today’s Trap Men Final at the 2010 ISSF World Cup Final in Izmir, Turkey.
It was indeed a Turkish shooter, Oguzhan Tunzun, 27-year old, who won the Gold medal and the title, triggering the loudest celebrations of this year’s ISSF World Cup Series among the hundreds of spectators following the match at the shooting range of Izmir.
An odd-defying result, especially if considering that Tunzun was not even qualified for the match. The Turkish athlete was indeed participating in this ISSF World Cup Final thanks to a wild card, a qualification pass accorded to the Final’s organizing Committee.
“I believed in it, I could feel it was possible!” the Turkish athlete said after the match, hugging his coach Diego.
Boosted by the home court advantage Tunzun gave his best in the qualification rounds. In spite of being ranked 38th in World, the home shooter scored out Olympic and World Champions, entering the final match with a 120 hits, just one target behind the qualification’s leader, the Russian Champion Alexey Alipov.
Then Tunzun zeroed in, shooting betters than anybody else during the final match. Hitting 24 out of 25 targets he finished on the highest step of the podium with a total score of 144 hits, bringing the last Gold medal of this ISSF World Cup Final to the host country.
“My first goal was to make it into the final;” commented the athlete “Than, once I qualified, I decided I had to grab the chance, and I tried my best.”
“Friends of mine flew in from Istanbul, this morning, just to follow my match, I could not delude them!” the new title holder added smiling.
Tuzun was not new to the flashlight of success. He had won an ISSF Junior World Championship at the age of 16, in 1999, and he had made it to the 2009 World Championship’s podium in 2009, securing a Bronze medal. He had reached his best ISSF placement in 2004, claiming Gold at the World Cup Stage held in Sydney that year.
“My next goal? An Olympic Quota Place” Tunzun concluded.
“Oguzhan has been working a lot on his shooting. He has been there all the season, between the bests, just a few targets far from the top” Diego Gasperini, his coach, said after the match “He missed the World Championship final, but he showed his skills today, in front of his home spectators, winning the first ever World Cup Final for Turkey!”
Alipov eventually placed in second, securing the Silver medal with a total score of 143 (121+23) hits after outdoing Australia’s Adam Vella 2 to 1 hits in a shoot-off for the second step of the podium.
While Vella wore the Bronze with 143 (120+23) targets, his teammate Michael Diamond, the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Champion, landed in fourth with 142 (119+23) hits after missing a couple of crucial targets in the second part of the final match.
Italy’s Muro De FIlippis, the winner of this year’s ISSF World Cup Final in Lonato, closed the round in fifth place with 137 (119+19) hits, while the 2008 Olympic Champion David Kostelecky closed the match in sixth with 136 (117+19) hits.