Trap Women: Gold and Silver to USA, San Marino's Perilli sisters dueled for Bronze

The ISSF World Cup in Munich stated off with two great medal matches at the Trap Women event. Two US shooters met at the Gold medal match, while the Bronze medal match turned into a family duel between San Marino's Perilli sisters.

The fourth leg of this years ISSF Wolrd Cup Series kicked off in Munich, Germany, today. There, 1300 shooters coming from 96 countries, are competing in the 15 Olympic shooting events of Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun from the 6 through the 12 of June.

The competition, held at the 1972 Olympic Shooting range of Munich, started off with the Trap Women finals, the first medal event.

And it was USA's day: Victoria Rose Burch and Janessa Jo Beaman met in the Gold medal match, securing Gold and Silver, respectively.

Burch had only competed once in an ISSF event, back in 2011, when she placed 33^rd at the Sydney's world cup stage. Today, she started off with three great qualification series (25, 24 and 25 hits), and then closed the semi-final in second place behind Beaman with 14 hits.

In the following Gold medal match, when the scores are set back to zero and the two finalists duel for the brightest medal, the 24-year old shooter beat her teammate Beaman 15 to 14 hits, pocketing her first ISSF Gold ever.

“It feels amazing to come out with the Gold at my first international final.” Burch said.

“The gold medal match felt really good. I was really focused and relaxed, because I knew that either way I was going to come out with a medal.”

“My parents came with me. They surprised me at the airport and flow to Germany with us. Having them here makes it even better.” The young US shooter concluded.

Bronze medal match: a family affair

Today's Bronze medal match turned into a family affair, as Arianna and Alessandra Perilli, two sisters from San Marino, met in a neck and neck fight for the podium.

The two sisters tied with 74 hits at the end of the qualifications (both with 25, 25, 24 hits), and then again in the semi-final with 13 hits each.

Only the Bronze medal match divided them: Alessandra, 26, beat Arianna, 36, 14 to 11 hits, climbing atop of the third step of the podium.

“This is my first competition since seven months. I stopped shooting right before the 2013 World Championship in Lima as I was pregnant. So it feels great to come back and walk out of the match with a medal around my neck.” Alessandra said, holding her four-month old baby Michael.

“Michael turns 4-month old today. It's so nice to be here with my family. Meeting Arianna in the medal match did not stress me too much. We talked right before the round, and we said to each other 'this is sport', and we gave out best to finish upon the podium.”

Arianna, who finished in fourth, smiled after the medal match. “Alessandra and I started shooting thanks to our father, and we've been training next to each other for years. But today it has been the first time we ever met in the final phase of a world cup stage. And I believe it's the first time ever that two sisters met in a medal match in our sport.” She said. “The whole family will celebrate, and it's a great result for our country too.”

San Marino, the oldest Republic of the World, a 30-thousand citizens nation, will certainly celebrated them. Shotgun shooting stands as the National sport there, and Alessandra was the only athlete of the country's history who ever made it to an Olympic final, when she placed in fourth in London, two years ago.

Australia's 24-year old finalist Laetisha Scanlan, and France's Melanie Couzy, closed the medal match in fifth and sixth place, with 12 and 9 hits in the semi-final, respectively.

The ISSF World Cup in Munich will continue tomorrow with the Trap Men competition. Follow the event on www.issf-sports.org