USA's Hancock and Italy's Palmucci win the last two World Championship Golds in Lonato

There couldn’t have been a better ending for the 2015 ISSF Shotgun World Championship in Lonato.

The Skeet Men Gold medal match turned into a top-level battle between France’s Anthony Terras and USA’s Vincent Hancock, with the latter prevailing over Terras after a breathtaking shoot-off. Both athletes, in fact, shuttered 16-out-of-16 final targets, and it took 8 more to witness the first mistake and award the World Championship title to Hancock.

"I feel sorry for Terras. I feel he deserved to win. Of course I would not let anybody else win if I get the chance, but he shot so good." He then admitted. "He shot a perfect match. That's something I have already done before, and trust me it's not easy."

Terras, who previously concluded the qualification round with the equalled-World Record score of 125 hits, continued his perfect streak during the semifinal, where he marked 16 points. His score was the best one among the six finalists, tied with Hancock and ahead of Italy’s Gabriel Rossetti and Denmark’s Jesper Hansen, who both qualified for the Bronze medal match.

In the 3rd place final, Rossetti, 20 years old and current holder of the European and World Junior Championship titles, bested Hansen, Silver medallist in Al Ain (UAE) during the 2015 ISSF World Cup, with a final score of 15 targets against 14.

Previously, at the end of the semifinal, Argentinian shooter Federico Gil, 6th in this event at the Toronto 2015 Pan-Am Games, concluded with 12 hits, placing 5th, while Azmy Mehelba of Egypt placed 6th with a final semifinal score of 11.

At the end of the qualification round, France pocketed the Team Gold medal with 364 total points; Italy followed in 2nd place with 362, while USA finished in 3rd place with 360.

Mairaj Ahmad Khan of India and Ralf Buchheim of Germany ended up winning an Olympic quota place for their country, placing 7th and 8th.

In the Skeet Men Junior event, Valerio Palmucci of Italy claimed the Gold medal, prevailing over USA's Phillip Russell Jungman in the Gold medal match. Antoher Italian junior athlete, Cristian Ciccotti, lost the Bronze medal match in favor of Nicolas Vasiliou of Cyprus. Finland's Eetu Kallionen and France's Dylan Chauray ended the semifnal in 5th and 6th place, respectively.

Today's men's and men's junior Skeet finals concluded the 2015 ISSF Shotgun World Championship conducted in Lonato, Italy, from the 10th through the 17th of September.

In the medal standings the host country, Italy, finished atop of the overall medal standings, with 4 gold, 6 silver and 2 bronze medals (including individual, teams, senior and junior medals). The Russian Federation followed in second place with 11 medals (4 gold, 6 silver, 1 bronze), while the United States of America took the third place - thanks to today's gold won by Vincent Hancock at the men's skeet final - with a total of 12 medals (4 gold, 3 silver, 5 bronze).

The final competition of the season will occur in Nicosia (CYP), where from October 15th to October 21st the best shooters of the 2015 ISSF season will battle for the five Shotgun World Cup Final titles.

For more information, contact:

Marco DALLA DEA

ISSF Communication Manager

marco@issf-sports.org

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