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Finals Double Trap Men

USA’s Richmond pocketed Double Trap Gold climbing from 4th place

ISSF World Cup Shotgun · Lonato, ITA

After finishing on the podium at the first World Cup Stage of the year in Tucson, the American shooter finished in the spotlights at the ISSF World Cup in Lonato, the last world-class match before the Olympics.

The weather changed on the shores the Garda Lake, in Lonato, Italy, where the third and last leg of this year’s ISSF Shotgun World Cup is taking place.

 

After the last sunny days, heavy clouds and rain showers were the background of today’s Double Trap Men competition, where six well-experienced world-class shooter met in a windy afternoon.

 

It was USA’s Joshua Richmond who eventually won the Gold medal, with an overall score of 193 hits (144+49), leaving his opponents two targets behind him.

 

Richmond had won a Junior World Championship here in Lonato, in 2005, as well as his first ISSF World Cup Gold in 2007. Now, at the age of 26 years, the father of two secured the brightest medal climbing from the fourth place, finishing in the list of the Olympics’ favourites.

 

“My motivation is great, on the road to the London Olympics. It’s great to get this Gold here, where I won a World Championship title and my first World Cup Gold”. Richmond said.

 

“It has been a great competition. I wanted a 50 in the final, but I missed that target. Fourty-nine was enough to win, today.” The American athlete added. Richmond had finished on the podium at the ISSF World Cup in Tucson, at the beginning of the season, where he had pocketed a Bronze medal shooting a perfect final round (50 hits out of 50 targets).

 

“I did not come to the pre-Olympic World Cup in London, since my second baby, Beaux, came to birth on April the 20th, so I could not compete there. But the competition which matters will take place in July” Richmond concluded.

 

Today’s Silver meal went to Russia’s 2006 World Champion Vitaly Fokeev, 38, who secured the second step of the podium with a total score of 191 hits. After making it into the final with 142+4 hits, he shattered 49 targets in the final, closing the match with a total of 191 hits.

 

The fight for the Bronze medal was solved by a shoot-off, a sudden-death tie-breaker between two shooters with a final score of 190 hits. The Russian finalist, the three-time ISSF World Cup Stage winner Vasily Mosin, 39, turned out to be the shoot-off winner. After 8 doubles, the Russian shooter outscored his opponent, the Olympic Bronze medallist of Sydney 2000, Fehaid Aldeehani, 45, from Kuwait, 7 hits to 6.

 

Malta’s Olympic hope William Chetcuti, 27, passed through the qualification with a score of 142 hits, and made it to the final after beating India’s Ronjan Sodhi in a qualification shoot-off. Then, after hitting 45 clays in the final he closed the match in fifth with 187 total hits. Coming in sixth, Saif Alshamsy, 43, from the United Arab Emirates, finished with a total score of 186 hits.

Marco Dalla Dea

 

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