The third and conclusive event of the fifth competition day crowned Slovakia with the Trap Mixed Team gold medal, making them the eighth different nation that climbed on the top of the ISSF World Cup podium in Changwon (KOR).
Along the first five series of the match, 34-year-old Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova and 41-year-old Erik Varga missed one clay each, crossing the 25-target mark tied in first place with Kuwait and Australia. There, Rehak Stefecekova nailed a flawless round and distanced Slovakia from their rivals, then entering the ten final targets with a 2-hit advantage on Australian youngsters Penny Smith (22) and Jack Wallace (20).
As the Aussie missed three more clays before the end of the match, Rehak Stefecekova and Varga managed to maintain the top position, closing with 41 hits out of 50 targets and securing the brightest medals. The reigning World Champion team of Australia — who took gold at the 2017 Shotgun World Championship in Moscow (RUS) — closed with 38.
“It’s great to win this team competition with Erik, it’s something new,” said Rehak Stefecekova after the award ceremony. “It’s very different from the individual match: sometimes your teammate is doing the job for you, sometimes all the pressure is on you. I like it a lot. I am happy that we made it!”
“This new shooting range is really nice, it’ll be a perfect place to host the forthcoming World Championship,” added Varga.
The podium was completed by Sarah Alhawal (31) and Khaled Almudhaf (39) of Kuwait, who won their country’s first medal in this competition, taking bronze with 29 hits out of 40 targets. Previously, Alhawal and Almudhaf set a new Qualification World Record with 145 hits.
Eliminated because of a lower bib ranking against Kuwait’s one, Russian Federation’s Ekaterina Rabaya (24) and Nikita Egorov (21) finished in 4th position, missing three costly targets in their seventh 5-shot series and signing off with 26 hits out of 35 targets.
The first team to be eliminated from the final was the Spanish one, represented by 34-year-old Alberto Fernandez and 31-year-old Fatima Galvez, who walked out of the range after clay number 25, taking 6th place with 18 hits.
Five targets later they were joined by Italy’s Valerio Grazini (25) and Alessia Iezzi (21), who struggled to maintain the focus after hitting nine of their first ten targets and concluded in 5th position with 22 clay hits out of 30.
The ISSF World Cup Stage 2 in Changwon will continue tomorrow with two more finals: the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men, taking place at 12:15 pm (UTC+9:00), and the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team, taking place at 2:45 pm.
The matches 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.