Fernandez earns Spain's second Gold medal in Rio, Ukraine's Kostevych dominates the Air Rifle Women final

The second day of the ISSF World Cup at the Olympic Shooting Centre in Rio de Janeiro (BRA) saw the Spanish flag wave once again higher than the other ones, while Athens 2004 Gold medallist grabbed her seventh World Cup Gold medal.

Day 2 at the ISSF World Cup in Rio de Janeiro (BRA) saw Ukraine and Spain claim the two Gold medals up for grabs in today’s events: the 10m Air Pistol Women and the Trap Men. For the Spanish team the Gold count is now at two, as Pablo Carrera finished 1st in the 10m Air Pistol Men event yesterday.

10m Air Pistol Women

Two-time Olympic medallist Olena Kostevych of Ukraine shined in the 10m Air Pistol Women final at the ISSF World Cup in Rio de Janeiro (BRA), securing the Gold medal with a convincing performance, and besting Silver medallist Antoaneta Boneva of Bulgaria by 4.0 points.

Kostevych claimed the lead once and for all after the very first series, building a comfortable lead over Boneva along the first half of the match and securing the highest step of the podium with 201.7 points.

Boneva, who concluded with 197.7 points, was visibly suffering the high temperature of the finals hall. Luckily for her and for all the other shooters the finals hall will be equipped with air conditioned for Rio 2016.

First-time ISSF World Cup finalist Teo Shun Xie of Singapore nailed a surprising Bronze medal, besting more decorated shooters and concluding with the final score of 178.0 points.

Chinese Taipei’s Wu Chia Ying left the match with a little disappointment, placing 4th when she could have been on the podium with Kostevych and Boneva.

In fact, during a shoot-off between Heidi Diethelm Gerber of Switzerland and Guo Wenju of China to determine the 7th place, Wu mistakenly took a shot, finishing with a deduction of 2 points from her score and concluding with 157.7.

Guo’s and Diethelm Gerber’s scores counted anyway, sealing the 7th spot for the Chinese two-time Olympic Gold medallist, who recorded 97.4 final points, while the Swiss shooter extended her match by two more shots, concluding 6th with 117.3 points.

South Korea’s Kim Jangmi finished 5th with 137.4 points.

The Air Pistol Silver medallist at last month’s ISSF World Cup stage in Bangkok (THA), Chinese Taipei’s Tien Chia Chen, failed to match her previous performance and left the competition in 8th place with 76.6 points.

Trap Men

The second Gold medal for Spain at the ISSF World Cup stage in Rio de Janeiro (BRA) arrived thanks to Trap Men shooter Alberto Fernandez, after Pablo Carrera paved the way yesterday in the 10m Air Pistol Men event.

Fernandez Gold is his second in the 2016 ISSF World Cup Series, as he already claimed one in Nicosia less than one month ago. Walking on the highest step of the World Cup podium twice in less than four weeks, and only four months away from the Summer Games, surely puts him among the favourites for the Olympic Gold medal in August.

After qualifying for the Gold medal match with 13 hits, tied with Belgium’s Yannick Peeters, Fernandez took a 3-points lead after the first six targets, only to see his Belgian opponent close the gap with a great second half of the match, where he hit 9 targets out of 9.

Tied at 12, the two shooters entered a Gold medal shoot-off, where they both shot consistently. Indeed, it took seven additional targets to crown Fernandez with the Trap Men Gold medal.

Peeters, participating here in his first World Cup final phase, was also satisfied with his performance.

In the Bronze medal match, Jean Pierre Brol Cardenas of Guatemala and Jiri Liptak of Czech Republic, who both finished the semifinal with 12 hits, battled until the very last target, when Brol Cardenas earned his first World Cup medal with an 11-to-9 final score.

After surviving an incredible nine-way shoot-off to enter the final, Great Britain’s Edward Ling finished 6th with 10 semifinal targets, while Slovakia’s Marian Kovacocy placed 5th with the same score.

The ISSF World Cup stage in Rio de Janeiro will continue tomorrow with the 10m Air Rifle Men final, scheduled at 1:30 PM (UTC-3).

For the 10m Air Rifle Women complete results click here.

For the Trap Men complete results click here.

For the schedule of the competition and the medal standings click here.

For editorial photos click here.

For more information, contact:

Marco DALLA DEA

ISSF Communication Manager

marco@issf-sports.org

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