Golden Bartekova brings Slovakian flag upon the Skeet Women podium

Danka Bartekova of Slovakia won today’s Skeet Women Final at the 2012 ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Lonato, Italy.

The 27-year old world record holder secured the brightest medal with an overall score of 95 targets, in spite of missing three targets on station six. Qualified with 74 hits, Bartekova had a two-target head start over her followers to manage, and defended her position scoring 21 targets in the final. Enough to win her second ISSF World Cup medal of the year, after the Silver she pocketed on the Olympic layouts of London two weeks ago. Following behind, three Olympic medallist could not catch her up, today.

It was Christine Wenzel of Germany who finished on the second step of today’s podium. The 30-year old Olympic Bronze medallist of Beijing scored 22 targets in the final, climbing up the scoreboard to win the Silver with a total score of 94 hits.

One target behind her, Chile’s Francisca Chadid Crovetto and USA’s Kimberly Rhode duelled for the Bronze medal, finishing with a tied score of 93 hits, continuing their fight in a shoot-off for the podium. Eventually, it was the 22-year old finalist Crovetto, today’s youngest finalist, who beat the four-time Olympic medallist Rhode 2 to 1 hits, stepping onto the podium to receive her very first ISSF medal.

The reining World Champion Kimberly Rhode, 32, had won the first World Cup Stage of the year held in Tucson (where she had also scored the MQS to compete in Trap at the Olympics) and finished in third at the London pre-Olympic ISSF World Cup two weeks ago, before finishing in fourth with 93+1 hits here in Lonato.

Following her, China’s Wei Ning and USA’s Caitlin Connor closed the match in fifth and sixth place with 92 and 91 hits, respectively.

The ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Lonato continues tomorrow, with the last medal match, the Skeet Men Final, taking place at 18.15 (GMT+1).