Pellielo shot Trap Men Gold beating Alipov and Diamond on the last five shots
The Silver medallist of the last Olympic Games of Beijing Giovanni Pellielo of Italy won today’s Trap Men Final at the ISSF World Cup Final in Shotgun of Minsk. Pellielo, who had started in third place with a qualification score of 120 targets, shot Gold with a perfect final of 25 hits, for a total score of 145 targets.
“I haven’t been winning medals for almost two years, before the Games. It took me time to get used to one-shot finals” said the 38-year old Italian athlete “I worked to find my condition just in time for the Games. Now I feel more confident with one-shots rounds, and this results become possible now.”
This is the seventh time that Pellielo climbs on the highest step of a World Cup Final podium: he had started winning in 1992, and gained his last Gold three years ago at the 2005 World Cup Final of Dubai. “And I will keep on shooting… on the way to London 2012”
The final round turned out to be one of the most exciting matches of this ISSF World Cup Final. The 2004 Olympic Champion and 2008 Olympic Bronze medallist Alexey Alipov of Russia, who had started on the lead after the qualification, wasted his advantage on the followers by missing in the second part of the round. Michael Diamond of Australia and Giovanni Pellielo took advantage of his mistakes, and caught him up when only five targets were to be shot. The three shooters (seven Olympic medals all together) found themselves tied in a final battle for the Gold medal.
Alipov probably felt the pressure, and dropped three targets in a raw, shooting himself in third place with 142 targets (123+19). Diamond and Pellielo kept on shooting tied right to the last shot, when tension tricked also Diamond, who dropped the very last clay putting himself in second with a total score of 144 hits (122+22).
The title defender, the Italian Erminio Frasca, 25, finished in fourth place with 141 hits, while the Olympic Champion of Beijing David Kostelecky from the Czech Republic had to shoot-off against the third Italian finalist Massimiliano Mola to close in fifth place.
