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The US shooter finished in the lead by only dropping two targets throughout his entire match

Yesterday, Jon Michael McGrath was crowned the new World Champion of the Skeet Men Junior competition.  McGrath, of the United States, only dropped two targets his entire match for a total score of 123/125 targets.  Chili’s Raul Franco Bostelman finished one target behind McGrath at 122 birds.  Cyprus’ George Kazakos battled the Czech Republic’s Jakub Tomecek for the bronze medal.  In the miss-out, Kazakos proved he was the top shooter as Tomecek missed the eighth target.  Although Tomecek didn’t bring home the bronze, he helped his teammates secure the team gold medal.  The Czech team finished with 357 total targets for a new junior world record.  McGrath, along with US teammates BJ Blanchard and Thomas Bayer, combined for 356 targets and the team silver medal.  Finally, the hometown German team edged out Cyprus for the team bronze medal.  The force of Sven Korte, Christian Gaertner, and Frank Cordesmeyer shot for 352 targets.

Qualifying Shoot-Off Determines Second, Third, and Fourth Place in the open event. Two out of three junior medalist came from Russia.

Emil Martinsson of Sweden is an accomplished and seasoned running target athlete.  From his fourth place finish in the 2004 Olympic Games (10m Running Target) to multiple World Cup medals over the past ten years, Martinsson is familiar with the demands of a top-notch shooter.  Martinsson only lost one point in the slow stage of the 50m Running Target Men event at this year’s World Shooting Championships.

With 299 points in the slow stage and 291 points in the fast stage, Martinsson finished at 590 points for the gold medal.  The silver medalist was Russia’s Maxim Stepanov, another well-known running target shooter with many medals to his name. Stepanov was the 2009 Heinola World Cup gold medalist in both 50m Running Target Men and 50m Running Target Mixed Men.  Moreover, at that same competition, he finished with a bronze medal in 10m Running Target Mixed men.  The poise and focus he used to win those medals was useful yesterday as he entered a shoot-off with the Ukraine’s Alexander Zinenko and Russian teammate Mikhail Azarenko.  The 19 points Stepanov scored in the shoot-off propelled him to the silver medal.  Zinenko beat Azarenko by one point in the second phase of their shoot-off for a solid finish and the bronze medal.

Russian’s Junior Running Target Shooters Finish Two of Top Three. Yuri Dovgal of Russia finished with 586 total points–282 in the slow stage and 284 in the fast stage–for the gold medal and title of World Champion.  Dovgal, a running taget shooter since 2007, posted one of his top ISSF recorded scores at this year’s World Shooting Championships in Munich, Germany.  The silver medalist was Sami Heikkila of Finland with 584 total points.  Heikkila finished with a bronze medal in 50m Running Target from the European Championships in 2009.  Dovgal’s teammate Alexander Naumenko finished with the bronze medal at 577 points.  Again, another impressive score from a Russian shooter who has only been on the international competition scene for a few years.

China and Russia led the Quota’s standings. Sixty-nine Olympic Quota Place, the entrance tickets to the 2012 Olympic Games, have been distributed by the ISSF to 26 different countries, during the 50th ISSF World Championship in all events, the first Olympic qualifier for London 2012.

“The shooting sport are popular all around the world, and they are a true base sport practiced in all the continents,” said the International Olympic Committee’s Sports Director Christophe Dubi, while visiting the competition four days ago.

And the 50^th ISSF World Championship kept up with the expectations of universalities, distributing Olympic Quotas to 26 different countries. From Russia to India, form Iran to USA, form Korea to Turkey, sixty-nine athletes won an Olympic pass to London 2012.

Italy’s Ennio Falco won his fourth Silver medal after a perfect match. Achilleos shot-off his teammate Androu to win the Bronze, while the current Olympic Champion Hancock secured an Olympic pass at the last, breathtaking shot.

Valery Shomin of the Russian Federation is the new Skeet World Champion. The 39-year old athlete won the title and an Olympic Quota place after an outstanding final, by outdoing Italy’s Ennio Falco at the 22^nd target in a spine-chilling shoot-off for Gold.

Shomin and Falco fought neck and neck since the first competition shot. Both the shooters qualified for the final round with the same qualification score, 124 hits out of 125 possible targets, and started shooting-off from the first station.

Duelling shoulder and shoulder throughout the eight stations, the two athletes played a perfect match, hitting all of the 25 final targets, and finished the round as they had started: tied in the lead with a score of 149 total hits.

The following shoot-off (a direct-elimination tie-breaker conducted on the fourth station – the first who misses, goes out), turned in favour of Shomin, who climbed upon the highest step of the podium with 149 targets + 22 hits in the shoot-of, while Falco was left in second with 149+21 hits.

Shomin, ranked sixth in the world, finished in the spot-light every four years. He had indeed won two ISSF World Championship silver medals in 2002 and 2006, in Lahti (FIN) and Zegreb (CRO).

“After two Silver medals, it’s great to finally win a title!” Said the Russian athlete after the match “I would like to dedicate this victory to my father Kim, who passed away last April, while I was out for a shooting competition.” Continued Shomin “I was not expecting a victory here in Munich, but I am glad that I made it, especially thinking about the Olympic qualification.”

Italy’s Ennio Falco secured his fourth World Championship Silver medal. The 1996 Olympic Champion could not defeat the odds. Since 1983, when he started competing, the Italian shooter has won every title – from the Olympic Gold of Atlanta to five European titles, from four World Cup Final editions to 10 World Cup Gold medals – but the world tile.

“Unfortunately I did not make it. For the fourth time. We shot an almost perfect competition, today – said Falco after the match – 149 hits out of 150 targtes is a great result. I knew I had to be perfect, but I could not do more then this. We were tied right to the end, and I am proud of what I have done here today!” Said the 42-year old champion “I am happy with the Olympic Quota Place, this makes it easier for the next year. I knew this was going to be a long season, and I tried to peak to be competitive here in Munich, to qualify for the next Games at the first given chance, as I have always done since nineties!” concluded Falco, who has been competing in every Olympics since 1996.

The Bronze medal went to Cyprus’ Georgios Achielleos, the 2007 World Champion, who defeated his teammate Antonakis Andreou in a shoot-off for the podium. The two shooters, both trained by the 2004 Olympic Champion Andrea Benelli of Italy, started the final round with an equal score of 123 clays, and cleared the eighth station ending up with a total score of 148 hits. It was then the 29-year old Achilleos (leading the world ranking until this morning) who climbed on the podium with 10 shoot-off targets to Andreou’s 9 hits. The two teammates duelled on the range but celebrated together after the final: they both won the Olympic Quota Places for the Skeet event at the 2012 Games.

The fifth and last Olympic Quota place was taken by the Olympic Champion of Beijing 2008, USA’s Vincent Hancock, who placed in fifth after outdoing Denmark’s Andres Golding 8 to 7 hits in a shoot-off. Hancock, who had qualified for the medal match with 123 hits and had then missed a pool on the last double of station four, closed the match with a total score of 147+7 points.

The Team’s Gold Medal went to Cyprus, thanks to the great performances of the two finalists Achilleos and Andreou, and to their teammate Kyriacos Chritoforou, who finsihed on the podium with an overall score of 364 hits. Falco’s Italy finished in second on the teams’ podium, with an overall score of 363 targets hit by Ennio and his two teammates Angelo Moscariello and Velerio Luchini. Following in third place, the last medal of the 50^th ISSF World Championship in Munich went to the French team, on the podium with 362 targets scored by Anthony Terras, Eric Delaunay and Edouard Poumaillou.