The 4-time Olympian of Czech Republic came back atop of an ISSF podium two years after his last victory (2011 ISSF World Cup Conception, CHI). He beat Jensen of Norway in the Gold medal match, and now plans for the months to come.
Jan Sychra, 44, from the Czech Republic, won the last match of the 2013 ISSF World Cup in Granada, the Skeet Men final, showing once again to be one of the most consistent skeet shooter of the world.
The 4-time World Cup Gold medallist from Hrobice, currently ranked 15 in the world, passed through the qualifications with an excellent score of 123 hits. Then he went through the semi-final missing only one target, and met the qualification leader Tom Beier Jensen in the Gold medal match.
Jesen, 23, had just equalled the world record of 124 hits out of 125 targets during the qualification, and did not give up during the gold medal match. He and Sychra tied with a score of 14 hits, and it was a shoot-off to decide the medal.
The two left-handed finalists hit the first double, and it was the reverse double to turn the match in favor of Sychra, who pocketed the Gold beating Jensen 4 to 3 hits.
Kuwait's 49-year old Abdullah Alrashidi, the winner of the last ISSF World Cup Stage in Nicosia, won Bronze beating Denmark's 32-year old Jasper Hansen 13 to 14 hits in the Bronze medal match. Germany's Sven Korte and Russia's Aleksey Skorobogatov placed in fifth and sixth place with 13 and 9 hits in the semi-final, respectively.
Sychra said: “I did not expect such a good result. When the rule changed, at the beginning of the season, I had hard times to adapt to the new format.”
“When I got into the Gold medal match, I thought I was not going to make it. Jensen shot a great competition, and I won just because I have been a bit more lucky today.”
The “unexpected medal” prompts now Sychra to plan for the months to come. “Today's Gold qualifies me for the Czech team going to the European Championship in Suhl. My next aim is to perform well there, in order to secure a spot in the team going to the ISSF Shotgun World Championship in Lima, next September. Then, the ISSF World Cup Final will be the last important match of the year, in October.”
“I will go back home and have a week off now. It's something which does not happen that often... I want to relax with my family.”