President of the Organising Committee, Hazem Hosny said: “This World Cup is historic because it is the first World Cup after a year. The number of participants was huge; we had 30 countries here and the athletes are very happy. We had a big support from Egyptian government, as well as of the ISSF leadership and the media team, so it was very successful.”
Mr Hosny, who heads the Egyptian and African Shooting Sport Federation, said: “We have at least one or two competitions each year, so to host competitions is not too hard for us, we know how to do it. But we needed to succeed because it’s the first World Cup in Cairo since 2009. And we wanted to show people that Egypt is a safe country and to demonstrate our hospitality. This is what has been done. And this is an opinion from athletes, not from myself.”
The Organising Committee were delighted to hold a safe competition, in compliance with recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We weren’t scared about COVID-19 because we have prepared everything” - Mr Hosny explained. “We had a lot of special equipment, and there were a lot of specialists in each official hotel. They were prepared for COVID tests and inspections of athletes. We had instructions which we followed, and we hadn’t any problems with COVID, because people followed these instructions.
The World Cup was broadcast on TV all over the world and on the ISSF online platforms.
Mr Hosny said: “The picture was amazing, the TV crew was good, the cooperation between media team of the ISSF and our team was very good. I think we got the point. The competitions were successful from any point of view: athletes, results, participations, broadcasting. We can evaluate it as an excellent World Cup and our common achievement.”
Croatian Giovanni Cernogoraz, the Olympic champion in Trap Men agreed, saying: “It was super, I’ve been watching the finals, it was really good. The picture and the commentator as well. The organisation of the World Cup was also really good. And it was a correct decision that athletes should stay in hotels and at the shooting range only, it’s much safer at this time.”
For the first time, a new extended programme consisting of 10 events was on show at the Shotgun World Cup. It included 4 team events, in which athletes from 6 countries won awards. In total, 13 countries were featured on the podium in Cairo.
The next World Cup will be held in New Delhi, India from March 18-29. The programme includes Rifle/Pistol and Shotgun events.