AIN's Lada Denisova and Spain's Manuel Murcia held on for narrow victories in the women's and men's trap finals today, on the penultimate day of the ISSF World Cup in Nicosia in Cyprus.
Both athletes were competing in their first final at the World Cup, and emerged top of the pile.
Women's Trap Final
Denisova had came close to qualifying for the final in Buenos Aires last month, but finished ninth. This time, she finished first in qualification. It was not a good start, missing five of her first 10 shots, tied for last and two shots behind the early leader Han Ting of China. However, all athletes were struggling with gusty conditions.
Five shots later, Han had dropped from first to joint-last with Denisova and Zina Hrdlickova of Czechia, while Rumeysa Pelin Kaya of Turkiye and Carey Garrison from the United States were two ahead. The next 10 shots determined who would be the first to be eliminated and that would be Han, one shot behind Hrdlickova, who would be next to exit in fifth. Denisova's form vastly improved, successfully hitting nine of the 10 targets.
Denisova had moved into second place behind Garrison, the silver medallist from Buenos Aires. She sat narrowly ahead of Kaya and the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Alessandra Perilli of San Marino, with one set to miss out on the medals. It would be Kaya based on qualification seeding, who was tied with Perilli. By this point the Sammarinese athlete was five shots behind Garrison, a gap that would be too far to move into the top two.
Garrison had had a commanding lead of three over Denisova, but missed three consecutive shots before the battle for gold. Denisova, in contrast, scored five from five to make it a tie. The American would miss three of those last 10, with her opponent missing just two, giving the gold to the 22-year-old by a score of 37 to 36.
Men's Trap Final
With the wind calming down in time for the men's finals, athletes enjoyed more consistent scoring - and consistency was important for Manuel Murcia on his way to victory.
It was a crucial chance for many final debutants, with many stars missing the top six including Czech veteran David Kostelecky and Britain's Olympic champion Nathan Hales.
The 45-year-old Murcia, a bricklayer by trade, was in the finals for the first time in his career, and had built a strong opening half with 22 from a total of 25. This had him level with Filip Marinov of Slovakia and Czechia's Jan Palacky, also a finals debutant.
Marinov's teammate Erik Varga would be the first to be eliminated with a score of 20, showing little separated the six athletes. Cruelly for Marinov, he would be next to leave despite just one missed shot as the trailing Yannick Peters of Belgium and Britain's Aaron Heading scored perfectly. In fact, all five athletes were tied on 26, but Marinov was the lowest seed in qualification. Palacky finished fourth due to two misses in the next series, as Murcia, Peeters and Heading all scored four.
All three athletes remaining were again, tied, and being faultless was vital. For Murcia and Peeters, they scored all five and Heading, a two-time World Cup winner, scored four, giving him the bronze medal. The Spaniard and the Belgian were in a straight shootout for the gold. Peeters would miss two of his first five to Murcia. Murcia would hold onto the gold medal as both finished with five successful hits. The score finished 44-43.
It became Peeters' second World Cup medal - also winning a silver back in 2016.
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