The 2008 Olympic Champion Satu Makela-Nummela of Finland beat the recently awarded Olympic Champion of London 2012 Jessica Rossi (ITA) in a tough final match, at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup Final taking place in Maribor (SLO), from the 21st to the 25th of September. Germany’s Jana Beckmann followed them in third place, claiming the Bronze.
Today's three medal winners has started the final match behind the qualification’s leader, Slovakia’s two-time Olympic Silver medallist Zuzana Stefecekova. But the 28-year old shooter kicked-off the round by missing three targets in a row, and sliding down in the placements.
Shooting neck and neck, Makela-Nummela and Rossi qualified for the final with 72 and 71 hits, respectively. Then, during the final round, they both missed four targets, ending up in first and second place with a total score of 93 and 92 hits.
Makela-Nummela, 41, who had won the 2008 Olympic title in Beijing, missed the London Olympics final ending up in seventh place, last August. At the same time, Rossi triumphed there, winning the Olympic Gold medal with an unmatched world record of 99 hits out of 100 targets.
“I was really eager to win this medal.” Makkela Nummela said, “After finishing in seventh at the Olympics, I wanted to end up on the podium here at the World Cup Final.”
“The time after the Olympics has been quite stressing.” Jessica Rossi said after the match. The Italian athlete finished in the spotlights, after finishing the London Olympic final with an almost perfect score of 99 hits out of 100 targets.
“I became kind of popular in Italy. People stop me on the street, saying ‘you’re the girls who shot 99 in London!’ Which is nice, but it also puts more stress into the game: everybody is expecting me to perform well.”
“I am happy of today’s competition,” Rossi added “I have been shooting at my best, in these conditions. The Silver medal is rewarding.”
Today’s Bronze medal went to Germany’s Jana Beckmann, 29, from Magdeburg. The German shooter had never won an ISSF World Cup medal, before. She did qualify for this World Cup final earning points at this year’s World Cup stage in Tucson, Arizona, where she had finished in fourth place. Entering the final match with 70 hits, she scored 21 targets during the medal match, clinching the Bronze with a total of 91 hits.
The 2012 Olympic Silver medallist Stefecekova eventually closed the match in fourth place with an overall score of 87 hits. After entering the match in the lead with 73 hits, she missed 11 targets during the final round, landing four points far of the podium. The second Italian finalist, the 2007 ISSF World Cup Final winner Giulia Iannotti closed the match in fifth with a total tally of 85 (67+18) points, while Kayle Browning, the US finalist, finished in sixth place with 84 (67+17) hits.
Trap Men competition: Frasca and Ling lead after day1
The 2012 ISSF Shotgun World Cup Final in Maribor will continue tomorrow, with the Trap Men competition.
After the first qualification rounds, Italy’s Erminio Frasca and Great Britain’s Eduard Ling lead the match with 74 hits out of 75 targets. London’s Olympic Champion, Giovanni Cernogoraz (CRO) is currently ranked 4th, with 73 hits.
The qualification rounds will continue tomorrow morning, when the World Cup Finalists will shoot the last 50 targets. The Trap Men Final will then take place at 14.15, (GMT+1), tomorrow afternoon.
Follow the results on www.issf-sports.org, and check out the profiles of the participants at http://www.issf-sports.org/results/wcf_qualification/portraits_shotgun.ashx