Double Trap Men: US anthem played four times in Lima

It has been a great day for USA, at the 2013 ISSF Shotgun World Championship in Lima, Peru. The US anthem was indeed the only one played at Lima's shooting range. And it was played four times.

US shooters won the two individual Double Trap events (Walton Eller finishing the Senior event in first and Ian Rupert securing the Juniors' Gold) and both the Senior and the Junior Team events, leaving no titles to their opponents.

The ISSF World Championship in Lima brought several good news to the US Shotgun team. The first one is that the 2008 Olympic Champion Walton Eller (USA) is back. Back atop of an international podium, five years after his Olympic success, and ten years after his first world championship win.

Eller, 31, defeated world's #2 Vasily Mosin of Russia in the Double Trap Men Gold medal match, by 26 to 25 hits, to become the new Double Trap World Champion.

The American world record holder passed through the qualifications with 137 hits, and then ruled the semi-final with 28 hits out of 30 targets. At the Gold medal match, taking place in the later afternoon of Lima, Eller started off by dropping two targets throughout his first three doubles, just to come back in the second part of the round with a consistent series of hits.

“The Gold medal match? It has been a though one. It was dark out there, and it was not easy to see the targets. But I zeroed in and shoot my last six pairs straight, while Mosin dropped a couple of targets at the end of the round giving me the chance to finish on top.”

“I am feeling great right now that I won the world championship here in Lima. It's my second one, and it has been a while...” Eller said. The US Champion had indeed won the 2003 ISSF World Championship in Nicosia, ten years ago, at the age of 21.

“I was quite relaxed during the qualifications. At the last World Cup, in Al Ain, I put a bit too much emphasis on the qualifications, and then I didn't finish well. This time, I tried to stay relaxed the all day, and it payed off.” Eller explained.

“I am heading back home now, to get ready for the ISSF World Cup Finals in Abu Dhabi.”

Pressure on his opponents: Eller is back in shape, and he knows what he's going for. The World Cup Final has indeed no secrets for the titled US marksmen, who has already won the 2001 and 2007 editions of the ISSF Cup.

Olympic Bronze Mosin in second

Russia's 41-year old Vasily Mosin, the 2012 Olympic Bronze medallist, ended up in second place with 25 hits in the Gold medal match, after passing through the semi-finals with 27+4 hits (after shooting-off China's Wang Hao and Hu Binyuan, +3 and +2, respectively, and Malta's Chetcuti, +0).

Today's was the second world championship Silver medal won by Mosin, who had finished on the podium at the 2010 ISSF World Championship in Munich.

Bronze medal match: China vs China

The Bronze medal match saw the two Chinese teammates Hu Binyuan and Wang Hao facing each other on the finals' layout of Lima. The 2008 Olympic Bronze medallist and three-time Wolrd Championship medallist Hu eventually made it, beating his teammate 29 to 28 hits.

Malta's William Chetcuti, 28, ended up in fifth place with 26 hits, while USA's Derek Haldeman, who had ruled the qualifications with a score of 141 hits, finished in sixth with 23 hits.

USA atop of the team podium

Thanks to Haldeman's 141, Eller's 137 and Holguin's 128 hits, team USA finished atop of the teams' podium with an overall score of 406 hits, reaching an extraordinary result: the US anthem was the only one to be heard at Lima's shooting range (to read more about the Junior events, click here).

The People's Republic of China (Hu Binyuan, Wang Hao, Pan Qiang) won the teams Silver with 404 hits, while the teams Bronze went to Italy's Antonio Barillà, Daniele Di Spigno and Davide Gasparini.

Up next: Trap events

The ISSF Shotgun World Championship will continue now with the Trap Women and Trap Men events. Check out the schedule of the match and follow the competition on www.issf-sports.org