ISSF World Cup Shotgun · San Marino, SMR

The Swedish athlete went through three shoot-offs, to beat the Italian finalist Cassandro, who had equaled the world record with a perfect qualification score of 125 out of 125 hits.

The men’s Skeet final closed the 2016 ISSF Shotgun World Cup in San Marino, today.

Sweden’s Stefan Nilsson pocketed the Gold medal after passing through three different shoot-offs.

The 25-year old athlete qualified for the match with 122 hits, making it into the semi-final by winning an eight-way tiebreaker.

He finished again in a shoot-off at the end of a semi-final - which he cleared with a perfect score of 16 hits out of 16 targets, finishing in a tie with Italy’s Tammaro Cassandro and Denmark’s Jesper Hansen.

With four shoot-off’s hits, he moved on to the Gold medal match together with Cassandro. The two finalists shot neck and neck, both hitting 14 out of 16 targets, to finish tied again.

The Gold medal was then decided in the third and last shoot-off of the day: Nilsson hit 6 clays, beating Cassandro’s 5 to secure the brightest medal.

Cassandro (23) - who had equaled the current world record of 125 out of 125 targets during the qualifications - finished in second claiming Silver, his second world cup medal in a row after Rio de Janeiro’s Bronze.

“My day was perfect. I went through a big shoot-off after the qualifications, and it was surprisingly short. After three doubles I was in. I passed again through another shoot-off to get into the gold medal match, but I was in a good mood after a perfect 16 in the semi-final, and I was pretty stable right to the end.” Said Nilsson, commenting on his final.

“It feels great to win my second world cup gold. I have been into three finals in my career, I won two, and claimed a silver, so I have a strong confidence when I make it into finals,” explained the Swedish shooter, who had indeed won two world cup medals, in 2012 and 2014.

“The next big things are the European Championship in July, and then the Olympics. I am preparing with trainings and competitions, trying to get good feelings that I hope to carry on into Rio. I feel I am on the right way.”

Today’s Bronze went to the two-time Olympic Gold medalist and reigning Champion Vincent Hancock of USA. The 27-year old shooter beat Denmark’s Jesper Hansen in the medal match by 16 to 14 hits, after scoring 15 targets in the semi-final and 123 in the qualifications.

“It has been getting better and better every match, and I have expectation that it will keep on going like that until Rio,” said Hancock, who’s in the Olympics’ spotlights, after winning two titles back to back in 2008 and 2012.

“This is my last international match before the Games. I am going in training mode now, trying to make sure that I can peak on the 12 and the 13 of August, to be at my best when I will be in Rio,” he added.

The second Italian finalist, the world cup titleholder Gabriele Rossetti (21), and the Argentinean finalist Federico Gil, took the 5th and 6th place with an equal score of 14 semi-final hits.