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USA’s Joshua Richmond won today’s Double Trap Men competition at the ISSF World Championship in all shooting events held in Munich (GER), securing the world title and an Olympic Quota Place with a record score of 196 hits out of 200 clays.

The 24-year old American shooter built his victory throughout the final match. Qualified in second place with 146 hits out of 150 targets, the athlete from Fort Benning, GA, did not drop a single target during the final match, overtaking his Russian opponent Mosin and climbing in the lead.

Shattering 50 out of 50 targets in the final, Richmond finished on the highest step of the podium with a total score of 196 targets, equalling the current world record set at last year’s ISSF World Cup Stage in Minsk by China’s Hu Binyuan (third today).

“It feels simply great! To win a World title, equalling the world record and securing Olympic Quota place… I still don’t know how I made it!” exclaimed the American shooter right after the final match, surrounded by his teammates, celebrating the title and the first Olympic Quota place won by the US Shotgun Team in this championship.

“I have been Junior World Champion in 2005… to win a title in the open category five years later is a dream which becomes true!” said Richmond, who had won a Junior title at the 2005 World Championship held in Lonato, Italy.

The American athlete won a difficult final, today.  A final taking place under a cold and thin rain, and disturbed by a slight breeze blowing from the left to the right side of the range.  A match which was stopped twice, first to let the US finalist Holguin change his trigger’s spring, and then to fix the targets’ angle.

“This is a great range, but it has not been easy! Something happened with the targets, the right clay moved to the centre. It was not properly angled anymore. I’d like to thank the ISSF referees for stopping the match and fixing it, even if that added a little bit of extra pressure to the round.” Commented Richmond. The American athlete, ranked fourth in the world until today’s final, has been a protagonist of the last two ISSF seasons, winning two World Cup Gold and one Bronze medals between 2009 and 2010.

Russia’s Vasily Mosin led today’s qualification with an equalled world record of 146 hits, but then he slid down in the placements during the final by missing 4 out of the 50 final targets. The Russian athlete eventually grabbed the Silver medal with a total score of 193+30 hits, winning an breathtaking shoot-off against the Olympic Bronze medallist of Beijing Hu Binyuan of China, who was left in third place with 193+29 hits.

“I am very satisfied and very happy, anyway – said Mosin after the match, while talking to the EBU microphones  – I was expecting to finish on the podium, and eventually I made it. It was very important for me to secure an Olympic Quota place!”

China’s Hu Binyuan, claiming the Bronze medal, also grabbed the last Olympic Quota place awarded in this final, securing a start in the next London 2012 Olympic Games.

The second American finalist, the 2008 Olympic finalist Jeffrey Holguin, 31, finished in fourth place with 192 (144+48) hits, missing the podium and the Olympic qualification by one target. The American shooter experienced a malfunction, and had to replace the spring of this trigger during the final round.

The fifth and the sixth place were taken by Richard Bogner of Hungary with 190 (145+45) targets and by Shih Wei Tin of Chinese Taipei with 188 (145+43) hits.

The Indian Double Trap shooter won Gold with a195 hits, after shooting 50 targets straight in the final. Sodhi sets now his next target “I want an Olympic Quota Place!”

“I made it in the Mecca of shotgun shooting!” exclaimed India’s Ronjan Sodhi, who won today’s Double Trap final at the 2010 ISSF Shotgun World Cup held in Lonato, in the heart of the Italian shotgun companies’ district.

“It has been a fantastic final! Hitting fifty targets straight in medal match is always a great accomplishment, but to do it here, shooting shoulder and shoulder with the best athletes of the world, feels simply great!” continued the 30-year old Indian athlete, who won today’s match with a total score of 195 targets, hitting 50 targets straight in the final.

After making it into the match in third place with a qualification score of 145 hits Sodhi played a perfect game. While his opponents started dropping a target after the other, the Indian sharpshooter hit them all, climbing in the lead with a perfect final score of 50 hits out of 50 clays. His final score of 195 targets turned out to be unbeatable for Russia’s Fokeev and Kuwait’s Aldeehani, who were left in second to shoot-off for Silver.

“I feel great. I am ready to go for the World Championship now. We have many important competitions this year, especially the Commonwealth Games in India. But my first goal is to grab a Quota Place at the World Championship in Munich!” said Sodhi, speaking about the 50th ISSF Word Championship in all events that will take place between July and August in Munich. There, the first 2012 Olympic Quota Places will be assigned to the best performers “Of course it would be great to finish on the podium there. But I would be pleased to get a quota, no matter what the final placement will be. I missed the last Games because I did no have a Quota… This time is not going to happen!”

“Ronjan is one of the best Double Trap shooters, in this moment” said the 2004 Double Trap Olympic Champion, Ahmed Almaktoum of the United Arab Emirates, who came here to follow the match, after he stopped shooting in 2008 “He has been improving a lot in the last years. I really think he can make it. My only advice, at this point, is to keep on doing what he is doing!”

The two shooters who had led the qualification rounds, Russia’s Vitaly Fokeev and Kuwait’s Fehaid Aldeehani, lost the chance to grab the Gold medal in the first half of the match. The two athletes, both qualified in the lead with 146 hits, missed three targets throughout the final, dropping down in second place behind Shodi and eventually finishing tied in second with 193 hits.

It was then the 36-year old Russian shooter Fokeev, raked sixth in the world, who won the shoot-off for the Silver medal with 193+8 hits, leaving his opponents Aldeehani the Bronze medal with a total score of 193+7 hits.

One of the favourites, China’s Mo Jiunjie, the winner of the 2009 ISSF World Cup Final and Gold medallist at the second World Cup Stage of the year in Beijing, finished in fourth place with a total score of 191+9 hits, after shooting off Great Britain’s Steven Scott, who closed in fifth with 191+8 hits. Hungary’s Richard Bognar placed in sixth, following them with 189 hits.

The 2007 Asian Champion, China’s Pan Qiang, won the Double Trap Men Final, equalling the World Record with a qualification score of 147 hits.

The Chinese athlete Pan Qiang won today’s Double Trap Men Final, winning his first ISSF World Cup Gold medal by shooting a record qualification score o f147 hits.

The 25-year old Chinese finalist, ranked eighteenth in the World, equalled the current World Record by hitting 147 targets during the qualifications, and walked into the final match with a three-target margin on his followers. Pan scored then 46 out of 50 targets during the final, claiming Gold with a total score of 193 hits, just three targets shy of equalling the Final World Record.

The 2006 World Champion Vitaly Fokeev of the Russian Federation followed him in second place, securing Silver with 190 hits, while the two American teammates Jeffrey Holguin and Joshua Richmond ended up in third and fourth place with 189 and 188 hits, respectively. Holguin had already won a Bronze medal at the first World Cup Stage of the year, in Acapulco (MEX), when Richmond had finished on the highest step of the podium.

The Olympic Silver medallist of Beijing Francesco D’Aniello, from Italy, closed the match in sixth and last place with a total of 180 targets, after qualifying for the medal match with the lowest qualification score (141 hits). The home shooter Peter Robert Wilson, 23, competing for the first time in a World Cup final match, preceded D’Aniello by finishing in fifth with a total score of 182 hits.

Joshua Richmond (USA) won the final with one target of advantage over Sweden’s Hakan Dahlby. USA’s Holguin claimed Bronze after an incredible series of 71 consecutive hits.

Today’s Double Trap Men Final was won by USA’s Joshua Richmond, 24, who secured Gold with a total score of 192 hits, finishing on the highest step of the podium with one targets of advantage on his followers.

The American shooter made it into the final with the qualification’s highest score, 144 hits, tied to the Swedish champion Hakan Dahlby. The two athletes duelled neck and neck right up to the twentieth pair, when Dahlby missed a crucial clay sliding down in second place.

With 48 hits in the final, and a total score of 192 targets, Richmond won the third ISSF World Cup Gold medal of his career. The 24-year old athlete, currently ranked eighth in the ISSF World Ranking, had won the 2007 World Cup held in Lonato and the 2009 Stage in Munich.

“It’s great to be on the podium – said Richmond after the award ceremony –I would like to take the chance to salute our teammate Bill Keever, who’s in Afghanistan right now. Come back safe, Bill!”

Richmond’s teammate Jaffrey Holguin, 31, a finalist of the last Olympic Games, turned out to be the protagonist of a perfect final. Making it into the medal match with a qualification score of 141 hits, Holguin did not miss a single target during the all final, climbing up the scoreboard to finish with a total of 191 hits, tying Hakan Dahlby .

Holguin and Dahlby met then in an endless shoot-off for Silver. The tie was broken at the twenty-second shoot-off clay, when Holguin missed his first target after an outstanding series of 71 consecutive hits.

Dahlby secured Silver with 191+22 hits, coming back on an ISSF World Cup podium after missing since 2008. “I am really really happy with my shooting – said the Swedish athlete – but of course I am sorry that I missed the Gold… It hasn’t been easy: my shooting range in Sweden is covered by 70 cm of snow since last December. I have been training a couple of weeks in Cyprus and Malaga, trying to get ready for this World Cup…”

“ It’s great to come back on an ISSF podium,  - added Dahlby – I would like to dedicate this medal to my wife Charlotte. I got married the last 10th of October, and we are now waiting a baby. Therefore, I will probably be in Beijing at the next World Cup, but I might not come to the following events… I am going to become a father!”

Holguin joined his teammate Richmond on the podium, winning the Bronze medal with 191+21 hits.

India’s Vikram Bhatnagar, 39, a first time finalist, closed the match in fourth place with a total score of 186 hits, followed by the two Chinese teammates Pan Qiang and Nan Wang, fifth and sixth with 185 and 181 hits, respectively.