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Finals Trap Women

Burton and Galvez duelled for the Trap Women Gold in Lonato

ISSF World Cup Shotgun · Lonato, ITA

Shooting with perfect weather conditions, on the renewed final range of the Trap Conca Verde shooting club – on the shores of the Garda Lake – some of the strongest trap women shooters of the world fought to secure the World Cup’s first gold medal.

Two top shooters, Great Britain’s Abbey Burton and Spain’s Fatima Galvez, fought for the Gold medal from the first to the last shot, in a breathtaking neck and neck race for the highest step of the podium.

 

Galvez started in the best way, climbing up the scoreboard from the third to the first place. One target behind her, Burton followed up, zeroing in after a few mistakes in the first part of the match.

 

Missing her 22st final target, Galvez gave a chance to Burton, who took the golden opportunity, hitting the clay and tieing her in the lead. But then Burton missed her 24rd clay, going back in second. At that point, the Galvez did not cope with the pressure, and missed her 25th target, so that the two shooters finished tied with a total score of 91 hits.

 

It was then a shoot-off – a sudden-death tie breaker – to determinate the Gold medal, which went to Abbey Burton who outscored her opponent 2 to 1 hits, securing her first ever ISSF World Cup Gold medal.

 

Abbey Burton had never made it to an ISSF World Cup medal match, before. Today, the 25-year old British athlete shattered 70 targets during the qualifications, securing a spot in the final, to close the match in the lead with a total score of 91+2 targtes after the final and the shoot-off.

 

“This was my first senior final, but I was not too stressed. I know Fatima, and I had met her before in a shoot-off when we were shooting Junior events.” Burton said right after the final.

 

“The Great Britain’s Olympic Team will be announced this evening. I did not finish in the best way the London’s pre-Olympic World Cup, because of the wind, but I felt great here.” The British winner concluded.

 

Spain’s Fatima Galvez, the winner of the Trap Women final at the previous World Cup stage in London, keeps on shooting at high levels. The reigning European champion hit 69 qualification targets, entering into the final one target behind the top qualifiers, finishing then on the podium with a valuable Silver medal won with 91+1 hits.

 

The closer we get to the XXX Olympic Games, the better the top athletes are performing. The reigning Olympic Champion, Finland’s Satu Makela-Nummela, qualified for today’s final round with 69 hits, after missing from ISSF finals since 2011. The 41-year old Champ zeroed in, and finished on the podium with an overall score of 90 hits, just one target behind Burton and Galvez.

 

A Japanese shooter, Yukie Nakayama, 33, finished in fourth place with a total score of 86 targets, after winning a qualification shoot-off with 67+3 hits, and hitting 19 targets during the final.

 

San Marino’s 24-year old Alessandra Perilli - who had won two World Cup stages last year - did not start her final in the best way, missing the very first clay. From there on, the young finalist missed 8 more clays, closing the round in fifth with a total of 85 hits. She was followed by the Silver medallist of the 2008 Olympic Games, Zuzana Stefecekova of Slovakia, who ended up in sixth with 84 (67+17) hits.

 

The ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Lonato, the third and last leg of this year’s ISSF World Cup Series for Shotgun events, hosts more than 500 athletes coming from 76 countries from April the 2nd to April the 8th. This the last chance to compete at a world-level, before the Olympics, and all the top shooters met here to measure themselves in the five Olympic events of Shotgun shooting.

 

The next medal match, the Trap Men Final, will take place tomorrow afternoon, at 4.30 PM (GMT+1). Follow the match on www.issf-sports.org and on www.youtube.com/issfchannel  

 

 

Marco Dalla Dea

 

ISSF Partners