As Italy's Diana Bacosi won the
women's skeet gold, which opened the
Larnaca's World Cup, Cyprus's
Georgios Achilleos hit all of his 50 targets in the men's skeet first qualification day.
Achilleos is now tied in first place with Spain's
Juan Jose Aramburu and Sweden's
Marcus Svensson--none of these shooters missed a single target in their first two qualification rounds. (
See all the other shooters's results in the standings.)
Shooters will complete their five qualification rounds tomorrow. They will aim at 75 more targets in the second qualification day, starting at 8 am (EEST). (
See start list.)
Ranked 12th in the world for his discipline, Achilleos will try to make the final while playing in his home country. The 34-year-old of Cyprus has won his last World Cup gold three years ago in Lonato, Italy. In 2007, he won a World Championship in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Aramburu, 33 and ranked 19th in the world, last entered a final in a World Cup two years ago in Nicosia, Cyprus--he then came in third. At the end of that season, Aramburu won a World Cup Final title in Abu Dhabi.
Ranked 47th worldwide, the 25-year-old Svensson will try to make his way to his first World Cup medal. He has only made a final once, last year in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He then came in fifth, but equaled the world record as he hit 124 targets.
France's
Anthony Terras and Russia's
Alexander Zemlin, the world's first and second skeet shooters, are not taking part in the competition.
USA's
Vincent Hancock, ranked third worldwide, was off to a disappointing day. He hit 24 targets in his first round, but missed five in his second. Hancock now ranks 94th in the qualification standings with a score of
44 hits out of 50 targets.
Egypt's
Azmy Mehelba and China's
Jin Di, ranked fourth and fifth in the world, came in respectively 31th and 75th. Mehelba missed two targets and closed on 48. Jin started perfectly and missed no target in his first round, but eventually missed four.
Check out more about the World Cup in Larnaca--schedule
by day or by discipline, participants, and
more news.