By Armstrong Vas
Doha: Jessica Rossi’s bid to defend the Olympic Trap title - she won four years back in London - received a major boost at the Qatar Open Shotgun Championship with the Italian clinching the top prize.
Yesterday at the Lusail Shooting Range, the 2012 Games gold medal winner in Trap performed in an emphatic fashion in the final shoot-out to defeat Ekaterina Rabaya of Russia 14-12. The 24-year-old missed just one target out of the 15 in the final round while her final opponent Rabaya could not get her act together, missing three clay pigeons in the process.
The Russian missed the fourth target, and thereafter kept an eye on the scoreboard to check if the reigning Olympic champion missed out on any target, which she didn’t. The 21-old-year further compounded her misery by missing a second target and a third one and although Rossi missed the one in the 14th attempt, the Italian kept her cool to shot down the 15th and final clay pigeon to clinch the title and the top prize of $6,000.
Rossi, speaking through an interpreter, said she didn’t give the weather conditions much of a thought.
“I just tried to concentrate on my shooting and not think about the windy conditions. All I was thinking about was having a good score. In the end, it was very good,” said Rossi, who was voted Shooter of the year in 2013 by a panel consisting of ISSF Athletes Committee, ISSF Coaches Advisory Committee and by a panel of international sport journalists.
Rossi said she was happy to begin the season on a winning note in Qatar.
“In Italy, it is very cold at this time of the year and I had good scores in the competition. It’s a good to start a season with a win against your name.
“I am happy to win the title for the first time in Qatar, I has been here two years back, but was not so lucky. For some reason. I could not make the trip last year,” she added.
“It is always a nice feeling to collect the winners cash prize after all the hard work, but more happy to win the competition,” she said in response to another question.
Runner-up Rabaya said more than the winds it was lack of focus which kept her away from the top prize.
“The final result was not good for me personally, but I am glad that I got a second place. Qatar is a good place, a good shooting range and a nice place to start the new season. I was nervous in the final, but it was not due to the wind that I lost. I erred with my concentration which made the difference in the end,” said Rabaya.
Catherine Skinner of Australia finished third defeating Mariya Dmitriyenko of Kazakhstan 9-8 in the bronze medal match.
“The pressure really gets you, you have to keep going because you never know what your competitor is doing neither,” said Skinner after the closely fought shootout.
Skinner said a variety of factors builds the pressure on the shooters.
“It may be the windy conditions and nerves, but there could be several other things. The timer when the target is released and you have to shoot with a x number of seconds also builds up the pressure,” the 26-year-old Australian reasoned out.
“Any sort of win is a happy feeling for me to start a new year. It is for the first time I got a third place finish in Qatar. I missed on a semi-final place in a shoot-out few years back, quite happy with the end result. Silvana Stanco of Italy finished in the fifth place shooting down 10 targets in the semifinals, the same as Tatiana Barsuk of Russia. Meanwhile in the women’s junior trap event Sarsenkul Rysbekova of Kazakhstan finished on the top followed by Qatar’s Badria Al Binali and Stephanie Pile of Australia. Eight shooters took part in the event.
Today the men’s final rounds of Trap will be held, which will bring the curtains down on the championship.
After yesterday’s action, Abdulrahman Alfaihan of Kuwait leads in men’s Trap followed by Massimo Fabbrizi of Italy, Josip Glasnovic of Croatia, Mitchell Iles-Crevatin of Australia and Erik Varga of Slovakia.
All the top five have a perfect score of 50 after two rounds of 25 each. 92 competitors are vying for the top prize.
The Peninsula
