The first day of competitions at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl (GER) awarded two individual Gold medals to Hungary and Malta flag bearers, Istvan Peni and Nathan Lee Xuereb, respectively in the 50m Rifle Prone Men Junior event and in the Double Trap Men Junior event.
50m Rifle Prone Men Junior
Hungary’s Istvan Peni, a two-time World Cup Bronze medallist this season, secured the first Gold medal of the competition in Suhl after a slow start in the final match.
Peni, who indeed was in 7th position after the first series and in 5th after the second, closed the match with a solid performance, eventually finishing 0.1 points in front of Norway’s Vegard Nordhagen, who concluded 2nd. The Gold medallist’s final score was 202.7 points.
3rd, earning himself a Bronze medal after going through some technical problems twice during the match, finished Sweden's Ludwig Wassman with 181.6 points
Vladislav Fetisov of Russia placed 4th with 161.3 points, followed by Ukraine’s Olexandr Kolokhov with 131.4 and Norway’s second finalist, Benjamin Tingsrud Karlsen with 118.6. Last year’s 3 Positions Gold medallist at the ISSF Junior Cup here in Suhl, Switzerland’s Christoph Duerr, placed 7th with 99.5 points, while Croatia’s Andrija Mikuljan concluded 8th with 76.3.
Thanks to the two athletes they placed in the final, Norway pocketed the team Gold medal, with Karlsen and Nordhagen joined by Henrik Larsen. 2nd placed on the team podium concluded the Russian Federation with Fetisov, Timur Akhmedzhanov and Artem Filippov, followed in 3rd place by Croatia with Mikuljan, Borna Petanjek and Denis Tomasevic.
For the 50m Rifle Prone Men Junior complete results click here.
Double Trap Men Junior
In the second and conclusive final of the day, Malta claimed the top of the podium in the Double Trap Men event thanks to Nathan Lee Xuereb, who pocketed the Gold medal with an almost-perfect medal match, where he bested Great Britain’s James Dedman, Silver medallist also at last year’s ISSF Junior Cup here in Suhl.
Xuereb, a two time European Junior Champion in 2013 and 2014, shot consistently for the whole match, eventually missing a single target and claiming the Gold with a peremptory 29-to-24 win.
Before entering and winning the Gold medal match, Xuereb prevailed over Italy’s Andrea Galesso in a shoot-off to enter the final for the 1st place.
In the Bronze medal match Viacheslav Yukhimenko of the Russian Federation bested Galesso, with the Italian missing his last and decisive target, fixing the score on a 25-to-24 in favor of the Russian shooter.
Eliminated after the semifinal, David Alexander McMath of Great Britain placed 5th with 22 hits, while USA’s Tyler Deyo finished 6th with 21.
Despite finishing just outside of the medal positions, Galesso celebrated the team Gold medal along with his teammates Jacopo Dal Moro and Emanuele Buccolieri. In 2nd place on the team podium, Russian Federation’s Yukhimenko with Danil Zimarev and Kamil Khusaenov. 3rd on the team podium finished the United States of America with Tyler Deyo, Henry Garvey and Jacob Hochhausler.
For the Double Trap Men Junior complete results click here.
The ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl will continue tomorrow with three finals: the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women Junior, scheduled at 12:00 PM (UTC+2), the 10m Air Pistol Men Junior, taking place at 2:30 PM, and the 10m Air Pistol Women, scheduled at 3:30 PM.
News and updates will be available on the ISSF official website and on its social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Weibo. While highlights of all the finals will be available on YouTube and Youku.