Jiri Liptak of the Czech Republic won today’s Trap Men Final at the 2016 ISSF Shotgun World Cup in San Marino, beating Italy’s Daniele Resca in the Gold medal match with a score of 12 to 10 hits.
The 34-year old Czech athlete qualified for the semi-final with 121 hits out of 125 targets over the two-day qualification phase.
Hitting 13 clays in the semi-final, he finished atop of the table, tied to Daniele Resca and Russia’s Alexey Alipov, and won the following shoot-off (+4 hits) making it into the gold medal match along with Resca (+3+2 hits).
“The conditions were not easy during both competition days. The rain does not help, and the light was changing every other minute,” said Liptak after the medal match.
“The qualifications went well, even if it hasn’t been easy to advance to the final: all the best shooters of the world were competing here in San Marino.”
“The semi-final was up and down. I missed the last target, and I ended up in a shoot-off to access the Gold medal match. Luckily I made it through, and that gave me the confidence to shoot for the brightest medal,” added Liptak, who had won his first and last world cup gold in Beijing in 2014, when he had met and beat the same Resca.
“To make it to the podium here in San Marino - which is really close to where I live - it means something special to me. It’s almost my home turf!” said Daniele Resca, 29, who comes from Bologna, Italy, just 120 km far from San Marino.
“Given the conditions, I was extremely happy to qualify for the final with 121 hits out of 125 targets. In the semi-final, I met 5 athletes who rank among the bests in the world, so I am happy and proud to wear the silver medal: it’s a great achievement for me.”
“I hope I will qualify for this year’s ISSF World Cup Final in Rome, and to be able to lift our flag atop of that podium. I won’t go to the Olympics,” added Daniele, who did not make the Italian Olympic team for Rio. “After that, I will immediately start working on the next big goal: Tokyo 2020.”
The 2004 Olympic Champion Alexey Alipov of the Russian Federation (40) took Bronze, beating 13 to 11 the winner of the last two world cup stages Alberto Fernandez of Spain (32), currently ranked first in the world.
Alipov, coming from a victory at the 2015 European Games in Baku, collected his 22nd world cup medal today, his 8th gold in 17 years.
Following the medal matches contesters, Josip Glasnovic of Croatia (33) and Joan Garcia of Spain (37) closed their competition in 5th and 6th place, respectively, with a score of 12 hits each.
The ISSF Shotgun World Cup in San Marino will continue tomorrow with the men’s Double Trap pre-event training. The Double Trap Final will then take place on Monday the 6th, at 4.30 PM.
Follow the match live on www.issf-sports.org