Champions Mein and Cormenier among eight to book Trap Paris ticket

The United States' Derrick Scott Mein and France's Carole Cormenier won gold medals as they won spots at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games during the 2022 ISSF World Championship (Shotgun) in Osijek, Croatia.

With four places up for grabs in both the Men's and Women's Trap competitions, there was plenty of intrigue as to who would pick up an early spot.

In the men's event, the Czech Republic's Jiri Liptak and Sweden's Rickard Levin-Andersson had already qualified and were ineligible. In total there were 157 athletes, meaning 155 were eligible to pick up a place. With 125 targets to shoot in qualifying, the top eight would advance. Leading off was Chinese Taipei's Yang Kun-Pi with 123 hits, while Mein was in second with 122. There was a four-way tie for third as Rashid Hamad SA al-Athba of Qatar, Peru's Alessandro de Souza Ferreira, Great Britain's Nathan Hales and India's Bhowneesh Mendiratta all hit 121 targets. In the first shoot-off, de Souza Ferreira booked his place in third with two hits, while the other three could only manage one, leading to another shoot-off. Here, Mendiratta hit three targets with the other two only hitting two, confirming the Indian in fourth and mandating another shoot-off between al-Athba and Hales. It was the Britain who took it 2-1 to confirm fifth spot. There was an eleven-way tie for seventh as Kuwait's Abdulrahman Al Faihan, Australia's Nathan Steven Argiro, Portugal's Joao Azevedo, France's Clement Borgue, Greece's Ioannis Chatzitsakiroglou, Spain's Alberto Fernandez, Croatian brothers Anton Glasnovic and Josip Glasnovic, Moroccan Driss Haffari, GB's Aaron Heading and New Zealand's Owen Robinson. Borgue took seventh with eight hits in the shoot-off, while Heading took the final spot with seven. Chatzitsakrioglou and Haffari missed out with five, ahead of Robinson on four, Azevedo on three, Anton Glasnovic, Fernandez, and Josip Glasnovic on two, Argiro on one, and Al Faihan on zero.

With the eight decided, it was time for the ranking matches. In the first match, Borgue, de Souza Ferreira, Hales, and Yang met, with one athlete eliminated after fifteen shots and another eliminated after a further ten: the other two would proceed to the medal match. After fourteen shots, Hales had thirteen hits, while Borgue, de Souza Ferreira and Yang all had twelve, but the Peruvian missed his fifteenth shot to get eliminated while both Borgue and Yang continued with a hit. Seven shots later, and Hales still had the advantage, with twenty shots compared to nineteen for Borgue and Yang. Yang missed his next shot to give Borgue the advantage, it was now 20-19 in their battle. But in the next shot both Borgue and Hales missed, meaning Hales had twenty-one hits and Borgue and Yang both had twenty. Remarkably, Hales hit the next shot to top the match with twenty-two, but Borgue and Yang both missed. It would go to a shoot-off, which Yang took 1-0, putting him through to the medal match. In the other ranking match, al-Athba, Heading, Mein, and Mendiratta faced off, with Heading wasting an opportunity by missing his final shot to be eliminated with eleven hits after fifteen. Mein lead with all fifteen with Mendiratta not too far behind on fourteen; al-Athba on twelve had work to do, but hit his next ten perfectly. Mendiratta did the same to top the match with twenty-four, but after hitting his first twenty-two shots perfectly, Mein missed three in a row to mandate a shoot-off with al-Athba, which he did win 5-4.

So Hales, Mein, Mendiratta, and Yang went through to the medal match, where after fifteen shots, an athlete would be eliminated, and then again after twenty-five and thirty-five. It was tense after fifteen, with Hales, Mein, and Yang all on fourteen hits and Mendiratta eliminated on fifteen. Hales and Mein both hit their next ten perfectly but Yang had to settle for bronze as he only hit nine for a final total of twenty-three. That meant that Hales and Mein were twenty-four apiece going into the final ten shots, but Hales blinked first, missing his fifth hit to give Mein a 29-28 lead with five shots to go. Mein hit his next four perfectly, with Hales missing his fourth shot, meaning a golden hit was declared with Mein 33-31 up with just one shot to go. Therefore, the quotas went to the United States, Great Britain, Chinese Taipei, and India.

On the women's side, Great Britain's Lucy Charlotte Hall was ineligible having already qualified. With 81 shooters, that meant eighty had the right to earn a place in Paris. Slovakia's Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova lead qualifying with 122 hits, with a tie for second between Cormenier and China's Wang Xiaojing on 119 points; Wang winning the shoot-off 2-1. There was another tie for fourth between Portugal's Maria Ines Coelho de Barros and Australia's Catherine Skinner both getting 118 hits, and the Australian took the shoot-off 3-2. For sixth, another tie, with Spain's Fatima Galvez and Australia's Laetisha Scanlan both racking up 117 hits, and Galvez took that shoot-off 1-0. There was a three-way tie for the eighth and final spot, with Ray Bassil of Lebanon, Mariya Dmitriyenko of Kazakhstan, and Kathrin Murche of Germany all on 116: Dmitriyenko took it with five hits, ahead of Murche on four and Bassil on one.

Coelho de Barros, Cormenier, Rehak Stefecekova, and Scanlan met in the first ranking match. There was a clear leader after fifteen hits, with Rehak Stefecekova hitting all fifteen, ahead of Cormenier on thirteen, Coelho de Barros on twelve and the eliminated Scanlan on eleven. Rehak Stefecekova finished with a perfect twenty-five, while Cormenier pipped Coelho de Barros 22-20 for the other spot. In the other match, Dmitriyenko, Galvez, Skinner, and Wang met, with some mistakes being shown early on. Galvez led after fifteen shots with thirteen hits, ahead of Wang on twelve. Skinner and Dmitriyenko were both on eleven, with the Kazakh eliminated due to her inferior score in qualification. Skinner then hit her next ten shots perfectly, and with Galvez and Wang missing two each, it was the Chinese shooter eliminated: Skinner and Galvez both had twenty-one over Wang's twenty.

So the medal match was made up of Cormenier, Galvez, Rehak Stefecekova and Skinner. After fifteen shots, Cormenier and Galvez led with fourteen, with Rehak Stefecekova on twelve and Skinner eliminated on ten. Ten shots later, Cormenier led with twenty-three, with Galvez on twenty-one and Rehak Stefecekova on twenty. Cormenier had given Galvez a potential opening after missing her third shot of the final ten, but Galvez missed her ninth shot, re-establishing the two-hit advantage and with one shot to go, a Golden Hit was declared with Cormenier 33-31 up. The quotas therefore went to France, Spain, Slovakia, and Australia. This means that a host quota will now be reallocated to the Olympic Ranking.

Therefore, the non-European countries of Australia, Chinese Taipei, India and the United States get their first quota, while Great Britain add their first male quota to the two spots the women have earned at European Championships. France get their second (and first female) non-host quota, while Spain and Slovakia get a spot each after missing out at European Championships.

The Championships continue with the Skeet competition from 7-9 October. The next chance to see Trap shooters will be at the 2022 CAT Championship for North and South Americans in Lima, Peru, the 2023 European Championship in Leobersdorf, Austria, the 2023 Asia Championship in Changwon, South Korea, or the 2023 World Championship in Baku, Azerbaijan, depending on continent.

Patrick Green

Writer, Totallympics News