A hectic year of ISSF competition in 2023 saw shooters involved in two Grands Prix, 13 World Cups, the Junior World Championships in Changwon, the 53rd World Championships in Baku and the last hoorah of the World Cup Final in Doha. Athletes across all disciplines produced outstanding performances that augured well for 2024, where the Paris Olympics and Paralympics shimmer on the horizon.
Twenty one years after winning her first world title – in the double trap – Chinese Taipei’s 42-year-old Lin Yi-chun won a second title in the trap.
At the conclusion of her final at the ISSF World Championships in Baku the three-time Asian champion she raised her shotgun in joyful triumph.
Yi-chun scored 40, beating Italy’s London 2012 gold medallist Jessica Rossi – seeking a fourth individual world title – by one shot.
Germany’s 23-year-old Kathrin Murche, youngest of the six finalists, took bronze on 28.
The Chinese Taipei shooter also earned a Paris 2024 quota place for her country – and should she be selected it would mean her contesting a fifth Olympics in the French capital.
“Now it’s very exciting. I have only one word, thank you,” Lin said in a post-competition interview.
Murche, fourth-placed Wu Cuicui of China and fifth-placed Rajeshwari Kumari of India also earned Paris 2024 quota places.
Lin started off the competition with two straight misses but gained confidence as the final progressed and tied for the lead at the 25th shot.
From that point on it was her vying for top placing with her 31-year-old Italian rival with both making their way to the final 10 shots.
While both missed on their first shot, Lin quickly recovered to shoot down eight straight targets, while the Italian continued to faulter with three more misses.
Alessandra Perilli, San Marino’s first ever Olympic medallist, had topped qualifying but finished sixth after missing 10 of the first 25 targets.
Things went less well for Yi-chun at the ISSF World Cup Final in Doha as, in unfamiliar floodlit conditions, she was the first of the six finalists to depart.
Gold went to Italy’s Silvana Stanco, who beat Fatima Galvez of Spain 38-37 after her compatriot Rossi had recovered from an uncertain start in the unfamiliar floodlit conditions to earn bronze ahead of Poland’s Sandra Bernal.
Spain’s Mar Molne Magrina won the opening World Cup event in Rabat, and the penultimate event of the series in Almaty.
Penny Smith of Australia was the winner in Doha, with Britain’s Lucy Hall being victorious in Larnaca.
Portugal’s Maria Ines Coelho De Barros took gold in Cairo and the last of the six World Cups featuring trap shooting, in Lonato, went to Australia’s Laetisha Scanlan.
Fuente: http://www.issf-sports.org
