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Finals Trap Men

First-time medallist Liptak beat Olympic Champ Alipov at the Trap Men event in Beijing

ISSF World Cup Rifle / Pistol / Shotgun · Beijing, CHN

2004 Olympic Champion Alipov missed a fatal target in the Gold medal match, giving the Gold to the Czech first-time finalist Jiri Liptak. Italy's Daniele Resca beat the 2008 Olympic Champion Kostelecky (CZE) to step on the podium.

Jiri Liptak of the Czech Republic won his first ISSF Gold medal at today's Trap Men event at the 2014 ISSF World Cup in Beijing, China.

The 32-year old shooter qualified for the final phase of the competition with 121 hits after passing through a four-way shoot-off, and then led the semi-final with 14 hits.

 

At the Gold medal match, he met the 2004 Olympic Champ and 2008 Olympic Silver medallist Alexey Alipov of the Russian Federation, beating him 15 to 14 hits to finish on the highest step of the podium for the first time.

 

Liptak, competing since 1997, had indeed never won an international ISSF-recognized match before, his best placement being a Silver medal at the 2012 European Championship.

 

The 38-year old finalist Alipov, currently ranked second in the world in this event, took a bitter-sweet Silver medal, after reigning over the qualifications with an almost perfect score of 124 hits out of 125 targets.

He was followed by Italy's 27-year old Daniele Resca, who beat the 2008 Olympic Champion David Kostelecky of the Czech Republic 15 to 13 hits in the Bronze medal match.

 

Resca had qualified with 122 hits, and then cleared the semi-final with 13 hits, before shooting that excellent medal match. Kostelecky, who had won his Olympic title here in Beijing's back in 2008, could not beat the Italian's perfect score, and walked out of the competition in fourth after missing two targets in the medal round.

 

The second Italian finalist, the 44-year old world record holder Giovanni Pellielo, also had great memories of Beijing's shooting range: here he had won one of his three Olympic medals, a Silver, in 2008. But today was not his day: after shooting a great qualification score (124 hits), the Italian athlete ended up in fifth place with a score of 10 hits, having missed 5 clays in the semi-final.

 

India's 23-year old Kynan Chenai followed him in sixth place, after hitting 9 clays in the semi-final.

 

The 2014 ISSF World Cup in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun events in Beijing will continue tomorrow, when the 10m Air Pistol Women and the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men and Women events will take place. Follow the competition at www.issf-sports.org

Marco Dalla Dea

 

ISSF Partners