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Marian KOVACOCY, 24-year old, from Slovakia, is the new Trap Men World Champion. The Slovakian shooter won the Trap Men Final round with a total score of 146 hits, climbing up from the fifth place he held after the qualification rounds and upsetting any prediction.

“The shoot-off to get into the final has been quite stressing, but then I feld more confiident during the final round. It has been a tough match, but I feel great now!” Said KOVACOCY, who had to pass through a four-way shoot-off to enter the final round where he met Olympic and World Champions.

Shooting solidly, the Slovakian shooter missed only one clay throughout the 25-target final round, climbing in the lead and overtaking the Italian shooter Massimo FABBRIZI to win Gold. KOVACOCY had won the 2001 World Championship competing as junior athlete, but he had never made into a World Championship final round shooting between Seniors, before. “It’s different, it’s not comparable” only commented KOVACOCY, who did not climb on an ISSF podium since 2001 “You cannot compare two different categories! I really had no expectations for today’s match, the result came unexpected.  I cannot wait to celebrate with my teammates now!”

2005 World Champion Fabbrizi shot Silver.
Italy’s Massimo FABBRIZI, the 2005 World Champion, shot neck and neck with KOVACOCY right to the last shot, when the expert Italian fatally dropped his last target missing the highest step of the podium. Sliding in second place, FABBRIZI had to pass through a shoot-off against the Turkish shooter Oguzhan TUZUN to secure Silver with a total score of 145 hits +1 target in the shoot-off.

“You cannot imagine the pressure of such a match,” commented FABBRIZI after winning the shoot-off for Silver. The Italian shooter, winner of this year’s ISSF World Cup in Munich, suffered the stress of the match: “I was shooting next to an Olympic Champion, I did not expect that an outsider could make it. ..I congratulate Kovacocy.!I am really sorry I lost the Gold in this way. But at the same time, I am so proud I made it to the podium winning a Silver medal!”

By missing on the first shoot-off target, the 26-year old Turkish shooter TUNZUN placed in third winning Bronze with a total of 145 targets +0. TUNZUN, who had won the 1999 Junior World Championship of Tampere, had never made into a World Championship Senior final before.

The Olympic Champion in fourth: “…but it has been a positive season!”
The Olympic Champion of Beijing David KOSTELECKY of Czech Republic finished the match in fourth place, hitting a total of 144 targets. KOSTELECKY, who came from a Silver medal won at the last World Cup Stage of the year, said to be satisfied anyway “I really had a hard time following the Games, being under pressure” KOSTELECKY said; “My goal for this season was to make it at least into a final round. I shot three international finals, and I won a medal at the World Cup in San Marino. The balance of the season is therefore absolutely positive to me.” KOSTELECKY concluded: “Now I will take a few time off, I will shoot at the ISSF World Cup Final, but then I will try to regroup before the next season.”

Italy claimed teams’ Gold, followed by Slovakia and Czech Republic
FABBRIZI’s score, combined with the good results reached by his teammates Giovanni PELLIELO and Erminio FRASCA, brought Italy on the highest step of the teams podium. The overall score of 362 targets placed Italy in first with one target of advantage on KOVACOCY’s Slovakia.

Slovakia’s team (KOVACOCY, FILIPOVIC, VARGA) placed in second securing the teams’ Silver with a combined score of 361 targets. Czech Republic tied Slovakia. The team leaded by the Olympic Champion KOSTELECKY (KOSTELECKY, DANEK and LIPTAK) shot a total of 361 targets as well.

The World Championship continues.
The 2009 ISSF World Championship continues with the Trap Women and the Trap Women Junior events. The competitions will start tomorrow with the official training, and will continue the 11th with the qualification and the Trap Women Final round which will assign the next medals.

The 2009 ISSF Shotgun World Championship kicked-off in Maribor, Slovenia, where about 600 shooters coming from 70 countries will compete from the 6th through the 17th of August at the Gaj shooting range.

The competitions start today with the Trap Men and Trap Junior Man matches. The first final round of the Championship, the Trap Men Final, will take place tomorrow, at 5.00 PM local time.

The ISSF Shotgun World Championship officially kicked-off from the opening ceremony, where the ISSF Secretary General Horst G. Schreiber welcomed the athletes along with the local sport and government authorities.

The Slovenian Minister of Defence, Mrs. Ljubica JELUSIC greeted the shooters in behalf of the Slovenian Prime Minister “It’s an honour to host such a prime competition here in Slovenia. – Said the Minister – Our country is going to be the centre of the shooting sport world in the next days. This competition is the highlight of a ten-year long work, and we hope you will bring back good memories of our country. We wish you all to reach successful results!”

“We expect that our shooters will perform an exciting competition, here in Maribor!” Said the ISSF Secretary General, Mr. Horst SCHREIBER, speaking from the stage of the opening ceremony “I am welcoming you all in behalf of our President, Mr. Olegario Vazquez Raña. Slovenia is a sport-loving country that reached five medals at the last Games, and it is an excellent location for our shooting sport championships. – Continued Mr. SCHREIBER. – We are going to have a wonderful competition. I wish good luck to our shooters for a fair competition!”

The organizer of this 2009 ISSF Shotgun World Championships, Mr. Igor RAKUSA, thanked the participating athletes, speaking about a dream that has came true. “Thank you for coming here! My dream to realize one of the top shotgun ranges of the world has come true. I have a new vision… – continued Mr. Rakusa – We are working to expand our sport centre, in order to offer Rifle and Pistol shooting facilities.”

The President of the Shooting Union of Slovenia, Mr. Gorazd MALOIC, greeted the competitors “It is great to have you here – said the President – Thanks to the ISSF for entrusting us of the organization of this Championships. We will do our best, and we are sure that also the athletes will try their best! I wish you the greatest success!”

The 2009 ISSF World Championship was officially opened by a speech of the Slovenian National Olympic Committee’s President, Mr. Janez KOCIJANCIC “Dear friends, welcome to our sport-loving country Slovenia – Mr. KOCIJANCIC said – I wish that the sport spirit will prevail, and that the best will win. The competition is officially open!”

Who has won the most number of World Championships medals? It is not easy to answer, but could be interesting to take a look to the ISSF statistics about it. As the 2009 ISSF Shotgun World Championships of Maribor is coming closer, we tried to give a deeper look in the ISSF archive to pick out the most winning shooters of every times. We are dealing with nations and athletes, multi medal winners in the history of the ISSF Shotgun World Championships.

The Nations Ranking: Italy is unreachable in Shotgun.
The Italian has always been one of the strongest Shotgun team, but looking at the ISSF Statistic we found out that it is not only the first in the ranking, but also by far unreachable in the overall medal count of the ISSF World Championships. Between 1939 and 2007, Italy has won the impressive number of 181 World Championships medals, with 76 Golds, 47 Silvers and 58 Bronze.
The United States of America are the closest nation. The American team places in the second in the overall medal standings, having won a total of 146 medals between 1930 and 2007. The States are ranking about 30 medals behind Italy, with 46 Gold medals, 57 Silver and 43 Bronzes. In the “all-times” medals count, the no longer existing Soviet Union would place in third, with a total of 108 medals. More interesting is to notice that The People’s Republic of China is coming closer to the “top-3”. The Chinese team has won a total of “only” 83 medals (30 Golds, 30 Silvers and 23 Bronzes”). But it has started winning by far later then the others. While Italy and the USA won their first World Championships medals in the 30’s, China won its first WCH award in 1981. Considering the limited time, China is the fastest growing country in Shotgun events. It’s also interesting to notice how the Chinese Women shooters contributed for more then the 90% of the medals won by their team (71 out of 83 medals).

Individual Women events: Nattrass solidly in first
The Canadian Shotgun Champion Susan Nattrass solidly holds the lead in the overall World Championships medal standings with a breathtaking total number of 14 medals, 7 Golds, 4 Silvers and 3 Bronzes. Nobody else, men or women, has won more then the six times Olympian Nattrass within the frame of the ISSF World Championships in Shotgun events. The Canadian Trap shooter has been one of the main protagonists of our sport through the last thirty years, as she has been winning 14 medals through 1971 and 2006 (she won her last title at the 49th ISSF World Championships in all events of Zagreb).
The closest active shooter in the Women’s ranking is Svetlana Demina of Russia, on the podium of this year’s ISSF World Cup Series. Demina, 48-year old, is ranked in third position, with a total of 8 World Championships medals (4 Golds, 1 Silver and 3 Bronzes). The Russian shooter, who has been shooting medals in Double Trap and Skeet Women events, has won her titles between 1979 and 1999. Even if she will run for a title at the 2009 World Championships of Maribor, she could not reach Nattrass, leading with three Gold medals of advantage. Between the active shooters that will probably take part in the next World Championships of Maribor, we should follow the Italian Trap shooter Deborah Gelisio, currently ranked in fifth with 4 Golds and one Silver medal. If she would shot a Gold medal in Maribor, she will move up in second place in the overall rankings.

Individual Men events: Diamond reigns in the lead
Michael Diamond,  the Australian Trap and Double trap shooter, an Olympic multi-medallist, is reigning in the lead of the individual Men rankings in shotgun. Nobody else has won as much as he did in Shotgun World Championships competitions between 1991 and 2007. Diamond is leading with an impressive number of 7 medals, 4 Gold and 3 Silver medals. He is leading alone in the Men rankings, and nobody will have a chance to overtake him at the next World Championships of Maribor. The shooters who follow him in the “all-time” World Championships medal standings are Michel Carrega and Jury Tsuranov, not active anymore.
Coming in fifth position, the Italian shooter Giovanni Pellielo, competing in Trap, would have a chance to reach Diamond in the “top-3”, if he would win a Gold in Maribor. So far, between 1993 and 2003, Pellielo has won 3 World Championships Golds, two Silvers and one Bronze medal.
Coming in next, the Skeet shooter Abdullah Alrashidi of Kuwait and the Double Trap expert Russell Mark of Australia may enter in the “top-5” by shooting a Gold medal at the next World Championships of Maribor. Alrashidi is currently ranked in seventh, with 3 Gold medals, and Mark in ninth, with 2 Gold and 2 Silver medals.

Juniors: growing champions
ISSF World Championships means spaces for Juniors, who have here a unique chance to compete within them on a world level. The 2009 ISSF World Championships will make no exceptions, and surely we will meet there some young and talented shooters who will become the Champions of tomorrow.
Looking at the statistics of the past World Championships, we notice how Italy is once again in the lead in the overall Shotgun World Championships medal count. Considering Junior Men and Junior Women World Championships medals, Italy is indeed in first with a total of 66 medals, 32 Golds, 18 Silvers and 16 Bronzes won between 1989 and 2007. The United States of America follow in second place, ranking not so far with 61 medals. The USA may have a chance to reach Italy atop of the ranking already at the next World Championships of Maribor. It will be difficult, but the USA achieved more then once “impossible results”.

“You can meet the Champions of the tomorrow at the World Championships”. We heard this sentence many times, and the statistic about Junior World Championships multi-medallists proved it to be true. Take a look to the “top-5” of the Junior multi-medallists ranking… can’t you recognize the names of World Champions, Olympic medallists and World Cup podium winners?