Marcus Svensson of Sweden sealed the ISSF World Cup stage in Rio de Janeiro (BRA) with the Skeet Men Gold medal, and emerging as the winner of an unexpected Gold medal match against India’s Mairaj Ahmad Khan.
After they both hit 15 semifinal targets, Svensson and Khan finished tied also at the end of the regular course of the match, where they both crushed 14 clays. In the subsequent tie-breaking shoot-off, Khan missed on his very first double, delivering the first Gold medal of his career to Marcus Svensson.
“It’s so great to win in Rio! The ranges are beautiful, I shot really really well and I’m glad to be here. It will be great to come back in a few months!” Said Svensson after the medal ceremony.
“In August my goal will be to enter the semifinal, then anything can happen.” He continued, talking about his vision for Rio 2016. “I don’t think there will be much space for surprises. It will be the six best Skeet shooters in the world.” Svensson concluded.
A three-way shoot-off was required to determine the two participants of the Bronze medal match, as at the end of the semifinal round Tammaro Cassandro of Italy, Vincent Hancock of the United States and Juan Jose Aramburu of Spain all finished with 14 target hits.
Hancock, the reigning ISSF World Champion and a two time Olympic Gold medallist, surprisingly missed first and concluded in 5th place. Despite staying out of the medal matches, Hancock was honoured immediately after the medal ceremony with the 2015 ISSF Men’s Shooter of the Year Award, delivered to him by the President of the ISSF, Mr. Olegario Vazquez Raña and by the Secretary General of the ISSF, Mr. Franz Schreiber.
The match for the 3rd step of the podium saw Cassandro, another first-time semifinalist in the ISSF World Cup, perform the perfect match. He crushed all of his targets, claiming the Bronze medal with 16 hits against Aramburu’s 15.
6th, with 13 semifinal hits, placed Anton Astakhov of the Russian Federation.
The ISSF World Cup Series will now fly to Munich (GER), where, from May 19th to May 26th an ISSF World Cup stage in Rifle/Pistol events will take place.