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Final Skeet Men

United States’ Vincent Hancock bags his ninth World Cup gold in Changwon

ISSF World Cup Rifle / Pistol / Shotgun · Changwon, KOR

Equaling once again the World Record of 59 hits, the United States’ athlete climbed atop the World Cup podium for the second time in two stages. To do so, he prevailed over the current Olympic Champion — Italy’s Gabriele Rossetti — with an advantage of 4 hits.

The final event of the ISSF World Cup Stage 2 in Changwon (KOR) awarded United States’ shooter Vincent Hancock with the Skeet Men gold medal: his second in 2018 after the one he claimed in Guadalajara (MEX) last March.

 

At the new Changwon International Shooting Range, Hancock started off by hitting all of his first 35 targets, then missing his one and only on station number 4. As the gap on Italy’s Gabriele Rossetti (23) grew slowly, but steadily, the American 29-year-old didn’t look back, shooting perfectly for the rest of the final and finishing with 59 hits out of 60 clays, while Rossetti — the current Olympic and World Champion — took silver with 55, pocketing the third World Cup medal of his stellar career.

 

Furthermore, just like he did in Guadalajara, Hancock equaled the current World Record in the Skeet Men event, set by Italy’s Riccardo Filippelli and Great Britain’s Ben Llewellin at the 2017 ISSF World Cup Final in New Delhi (IND).

 

“It’s been a great match,” said Hancock after the medal ceremony. “All worked well in the final, I just had to change my lenses a couple of times because of the clouds coming in and out.”

 

“The plan is to be the best shooter at every competition, on every station, on every target, right up to when it will matter the most, Tokyo 2020,” he added.

 

“This range is fantastic,” he concluded “I shot here in 2005 and it’s changed and improved a lot. This match have been a useful training for the ISSF World Championship to be held here in September, when the first quotas will be assigned.”

 

Taking bronze with 43 hits out of 50, Spain’s Juan Jose Aramburu (36) won the fourth World Cup medal of his career, celebrating his 50th start in the ISSF World Cup Series and adding it to the three other bronzes he won in 2006, 2013 and 2016.

 

The following positions were taken by France’s Anthony Terras and Kuwait’s Mansour Al Rashedi: the French 32-year-old — winner of the World Championship silver medal in Lonato (ITA) in 2015, behind Hancock and ahead of Rossetti — concluded with 33 hits out of 40 clays, missing three of them from station number 4 and failing to climb atop the podium for what would’ve been his sixth World Cup medal.

 

33-year-old Al Rashedi, instead, paid a costly streak of three consecutive missed at the end of the first round, which made him slip in 5th place and leave the match with 25 clay hits out of 30.

 

Finally, at the 20-target mark, the first shooter to be eliminated from the match was Republic of Korea’s Lee Jongjun, who finished with 15 hits and placed 6th in his second World Cup participation, besting the 21st position he obtained in Gabala (AZE) in 2015.

 

The 2018 ISSF World Cup Series will continue next month in Fort Benning (USA), where the third stage of the season is scheduled from May 7th to May 15th.

 

The match will be streamed live on the ISSF website, on the Federation’s Livestream channel and on its official Facebook page.

 

Live results, news and updates will be available on www.issf-sports.org and on all ISSF social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Weibo and Youku.

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RESULTS - Skeet Men

1. HANCOCK Vincent

2. ROSSETTI Gabriele

3. ARAMBURU Juan Jose

29.04.2018

VIDEO - Final Skeet Men

29.04.2018

VIDEO - Final Skeet Men

Interview with Vincent HANCOCK (USA)

29.04.2018

Marco Vettoretti

 

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