Published on 19 May 2006
Wegner reaches high
Katharina Mückl; Photos: Wolfgang Schreiber
<b>The stakes were high for the finalists of the Skeet Men final at the second competition day at the ISSF World Cup in Cairo. It was to catch that much sought after quota place to go the Beijing Games in 2008.</b>
“The Quota place is there now”, said Axel Wegner, 42, from Germany who was facing a tough competition after losing his one point lead from the qualification round (123) and meeting in shoot-off with Antonis Nicolaides, 39, from Cyprus. Four to three, Wegner won today’s competition, taking his first steps into the direction of 2008. “The road to Beijing is not clear yet, but I will go ahead and train. These Games will probably be my last ones”, added Wegner, the Olympic Gold medal winner of Seoul 1988.
Nicolaides, Silver medallist of the World Cup Lonato 1998, won Silver. On the podium’s third place followed Guillermo Alfredo Torres, 47, from Cuba. The World Champion of 1987 won his last World Cup medal (Gold) at the shooting range in Cairo in 2000. Today he got Bronze by outdoing Mikola Milchev, 38, from Ukraine in a shoot-off five to four.
Tore Brovold from Norway started the final round together with Wegner with the leading score of 123, placed fifth, after missing four targets. Juan Miguel Rodriguez from Cuba placed sixth.