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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 first day of competition of the 2009 ISSF Shotgun World Championship saw the great result recorded by the Olympic Champion David KOSTELECKY (CZE). Shooting in a beautiful sunny day, with almost no wind, the Czech shooter concluded the first day of the Trap Men qualifications with a full score of 75 hits out of 75 targets. KOSTELECKY comes from a Silver medal won at the last ISSF World Cup stage in San Marino, last June. The Czech shooter, who had won a World Championship as junior shooter in 1995, is still looking for his first Gold medal after the Olympic Games of Beijing.

The Chinese outsider LI Yang, 22-year old, surprised everybody by finishing this first day of qualification with a full score of 75 hits, reaching the Olympic Champion KOSTELECKY atop of the provisory ranking of the Trap Men event. LI has never made it to an ISSF podium so far, and his best personal placement has been a 16th place at the last 2008 Olympic Games.

The title defender, the winner of the 2007 World Championships, the legendary Australian Trap shooter Michael DIAMOND (a seven-time world champion), shot a total of 73 targets today, dropping two precious targets at this morning’s first qualification round. DIAMOND currently holds the 10th place of the provisory ranking, while Italy’s champion Giovanni PELLIELO, the current number two in the World Ranking, stopped his target-counter to 72 hits finishing in 26th place.

The games are still open: the Trap Men competition will continue tomorrow, when the last 50 qualification targets will be thrown. The Trap Men final round, where the top 6 athletes will meet to fight for the medals in a 25-target round, will take place tomorrow afternoon at 5.00 PM.

The 29-year old American shooter Ryan HADDEN won the Trap Men final at the ISSF World Cup in San Marino, the fourth and last leg of this year’s ISSF World Cup Series. The American shooter claimed Gold shooting in the rain, in spite of the changing weather conditions affecting this two-day Trap competition.

HADDEN shot today’s Gold medal with a total score of 144 +3 targets, outdoing the Olympic Champion KOSTELECKY in a shoot-off for Gold. HADDEN is not new to the podium: the American shooter came from a victory at this year’s first World Cup stage, in Cairo.

“The Qualification round has been a little bit difficult because of the visibility. I entered into the final very confident. I felt confident going into the shoot-off.” Said HADDEN, right after receving the last gold medal of the competition.

The Olympic Champion of Beijing, David KOSTELECKY, 34, finished in second place claiming Silver with a total score of 144 +2 targets, missing a crucial clay in the shoot-off.

“I missed two times the same target, within today’s final… two right targets… I have been a little bit unlucky in the shoot-off, but I am happy of my overall result.” Said the Olympic Champion right after the final match.

“I had not shoot at my best, at the last World Cup stage, and I found this shooting range of San Marino is quite difficult, therefore I am satisfied of my 23-hit final and of my 121-hit  qualification.” Continued Kostelecky, who had placed in 11th at the last World Cup stage in Minsk, shooting 116 targets.

With a total score of 143 targets, Bronze went to the 34-year old Sergio PINERO, who had also shot in the final round of Cairo’s World Cup stage. PINERO, previously representing Spain, and now shooting for Dominican Republic, used to compete in Double Trap, and had never won an ISSF medal in the Trap Men event, before.

Coming in next, the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Champion Michael DIAMOND placed in fifth after loosing a shoot-off against Slovakia’s FILIPOVIC.  DIAMOND ended up the round with a total score of 141 +10, after missing his last final clay. The 33-year old finalist Mario FILIPOVIC grabbed the fourth place with 141 +11 targets.

Belgium Philippe DUPONT finished in sixth place with a total score of 135 (119+16) hits. The 45-year old shooter had shot his last World Cup final round fifteen years ago, at the 1994 World Cup held in Cairo.

The Olympic Silver medallist of Athens and Beijing Giovanni PELLIELO of Italy won the Trap Men final round of the third leg of the 2009 ISSF Shotgun World Cup. The Italian shooter did not miss any of the 25 final targets, ending up on the highest step of the podium with a score of 147 (122+25) hits.

“It hasn’t been easy, because of this weather… We have been shooting under this cold rain all day long!” commented PELLIELO about today’s competition, which took place in difficult weather conditions. “I’ve just changed my shotgun, and I though it was going to take longer to get used to the new one. Actually, all run smoothly, and I easily found the new set-up, as you have seen!”

Next of holding the current World Record, PELLIELO is one of the most active World Cup shooters. Within the last 19 years, the Italian shooter has indeed won ten World Cup Gold medals, and a record number of 7 ISSF World Cup Finals; “I am the World Cup Final title holder, so I would have been qualified for this year’s World Cup Final anyway. But it’s a great satisfaction to walk into the Final with some good points gained throughout this year’s Series.” Conclude Pellielo, who will not take part in the last World Cup Stage in San Marino, but will compete at the World Cup Final, next November.

During today’s final, the PELLIELO faced the two times Olympic Champion Michael DIAMOND of Australia, 37, who won today’s Silver with a total score of 144 (123+21) hits. The two shooters had met also on the last Olympics’ final of Beijing, when the Australian athlete had then placed in fourth. The

The Australian champion walked into today’s final match with the highest qualification score of 123 hits. Then, he had a few hesitations at the beginning of the final round, when the rain became stronger, and dropped three out of the first six targets, dropping in the scoreboard.

Bronze went to the 2006 World Champion, India’s Manavjit Singh SANDHU, who won a shoot-off for the podium against Kuwait’s ALMUDHAF 5 to 4 hits.

SANDHU, 32-year old, started the final match with a qualification score of 121 hits, shot 21 targets in the final and ended up in third with a total score of 142 +5 targets, outdoing the 2002 World Champion Khaled ALMUDHAF, who placed in fourth with 142 +4 targets.

Ireland’s Derek BURNETT closed the match in fifth, with a total score of 141 targets, followed by the winner of the last World Cup stage of Munich, Italy’s Massimo FABBRIZI, sixth with 139 targets.