Russia's Vasily Mosin wins Double Trap world title in Lonato

The Russian athlete beat Great Britain’s Tim Kneale in the Gold medal match. Kneale claimed Silver and an Olympic quota place. The Bronze medal and the second spot for Rio 2016 went to Kuwait’s Ahmad Alafasi.

At 43, Russian Federation’s Vasily Mosin finally grabbed one of the few awards he was missing: the World Championship Gold medal in the Double Trap Men event. He did it in Lonato (ITA), where he prevailed over Great Britain’s Tim Kneale in the Gold medal match after they both shot perfectly for the first six doubles.

After two mistakes of the British shooter, however, Mosin built a comfortable lead and never turned back anymore, closing the Gold medal match with 29 hits against Kneale’s 26.

"Since I came here for the first time in 1995 I have been dreaming about winning a championship in Lonato," said Mosin. "Finally, my dream came true. It's an amazing feeling to win this title in front of my friends, of my sponsors, and the whole shooting sport family."

"This range is amazing, but at the same time it's very difficult. I put a lot of efforts into this competition, coming here 11 days in advance to train and to get used to the facility." Concluded the Russian athlete.

As Mosin had already collected a Rio 2016 quota place in Al-Ain (UAE) during this year’s World Cup, Kneale pocketed an Olympic spot for his country along with the Silver medal.

In the semifinal round Mosin led the group since the first doubles, and despite missing his very last target he still concluded in 1st position with 28 hits, while Kneale, shuttering 19 of his last 20 clays, climbed into the second position and earned his spot in the Gold medal match with 27 hits.

Another tie-breaking shoot-off between three athletes was necessary to determine the Bronze medal match participants, as Willett, Alafasi and Al-Athba all concluded the semifinal with 26 points.

An early mistake from the Qatari shooter opened the way for the Australian and the Kuwaiti, who took part in a third shoot-off to decide the Bronze medallist after they concluded with 24 hits each. Alafasi, the Silver medallist at the 2014 Asian Championship, won the tie-breaker by 4 hits to 3, collecting the second Olympic quota along with the Bronze.

The 2008 Olympic Gold medallist, United States’ Walton Eller, concluded the semifinal in 6th place with 24 hits.

In the team competition, Kneale, Matthew John Coward-Holley and Matthew French led Great Britain to the Gold medal with a total of 414 points, followed by the Russian Federation’s team (Mosin, Vitaly Fokeev and Artem Nekrasov) with 406. On the third step of the team’s podium, finally, India were represented by Asab Mohd, Ankur Mittal and Sangram Dahiya, with a total of 400 points.

In the Double Trap Men Junior event, China’s Huang Xiaomin claimed the Gold medal after besting Russian shooter Kirill Fokeev in the Gold medal match with a 28-to-27 score. The Junior Bronze medal went to Conner James Gorsuch of Great Britain, who prevailed over another Russian shooter, Kamil Khusaenov, finishing the Bronze medal match with a 27-to-26 score.

The Italian squad composed by Jacopo Dal Moro, Ignazio Maria Tronca and Lorenzo Ferrari collected the Junior Team Gold medal, marking a score of 393 hits, while Russians juniors Fokeev, Khusaenov and Viacheslav Yukhimenko finished in 2nd place with 387. The Junior Team Bronze medal, finally, was awarded to People’s Republic of China, who concluded with 378 hits thanks to the shooting of Gold medallist Huang along with Zhao Shiqi and Cai Jinzhan.

The ISSF President Olegario Vazquez Raña and the ISSF Secretary General Franz Schreiber welcomed the President of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), Giovanni Malagò, who visited the range and attended the two finals.

The World Championship will continue tomorrow with the Skeet Men pre-event training, and it will conclude on Thursday with the Skeet Men final, scheduled at 5:15 PM (GMT+2), and with the Skeet Men Junior final at 6:15 PM.

All finals will be broadcasted live on www.issf-sports.org and on the Eurovision network.

For more information, please contact:

Marco DALLA DEA

ISSF Communication Manager

marco@issf-sports.org

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only