The 2008 and 2012 Olympic Silver medallist Stefecekova of Slovakia competed in her first world cup stage of the season, and won with ease in spite of the critical light conditions, leaving two Olympic champions behind her.
The two-time Olympic Silver medallist Zuzana Stefecekova, 30, from Slovakia, finished atop of the Trap Women podium at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Almaty, Kazakhstan, today.
Stefecekova did not give many chances to her opponents: she came out of the qualifications in third place, with 72 hits. And when the scores were set back to zero at the beginning of the semi-final, she gave her best, making it to the gold medal match with 13 hits, after winning a three-way shoot-off against Russia's Tatiana Barsuk and Spain's Fatima Galvez.
Zuzana also left behind the two athletes who had beaten her in the last two Olympic editions: the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Champs Satu Makela-Nummela (FIN) and Jessica Rossi (ITA), who closed the semi-final in sixth and fifth places with 10 hits, respectively.
Continuing with the Gold medal match, taking place at the sunset, the Slovakian athlete outdid her Russian opponent Barsuk with a clear score of 14 to 11 hits, pocketing her fifth ISSF world cup gold medal in career.
Stefecekova said: “Today's Gold medal match has been just... crazy! I could not see anything: the sun was down, and the targets looked black. Somehow I managed to hit most of them, don't ask me how I made it.... I have been blessed to win.”
But even if light conditions turned the medal match into a struggle, Stefecekova suffered more during the semi-final, she said. “The semi-final is always critical. If you do something wrong there, you can easily end up in sixth place. Once I made it to the Gold medal match, I knew I was going to walk away with a medal.”
The Slovakian shooter, who had won the last ISSF world cup she contested, in Granada, in 2013, is back in top shape. She did not participate in the first shotgun world cup stage of the year, in Tucson, but now that the season has finally started, it will be difficult to stop her. “I am extremely happy, because this has been the first world cup stage I participated in, this year. And I won it. Now I am looking forward: 2014 is a scheduled season. I have two more world cup stages, then the European and World Championships. I hope that today's won't be my last medal of the year!”
“Everyone wants to earn a quota place at the next World Championship in Spain. I want it too. So, let's wait an see what's going to happen in Granada.”
And there she will most probably meet again Russia's 29-year old Tatiana Barusk, a three-time Junior European Champion who had been far from ISSF podiums for years (she had earned her last world cup medal back in 2008) before coming here in Almaty and winning pocketing today's Silver.
Granada is also the home ground of today's Bronze medallist, Spain's Fatima Galvez, 27, who finished on today's podium by beating France's Carole Cormenier in the Bronze medal match by 12 to 9 hits.
Stefecekova is right: everybody wants to earn an Olympic quota place at the first try. But there will only be 3 quotas to be assigned at the next World Championship, for the Trap Women event.