52nd ISSF World Championship All Events · Changwon, KOR

The Spanish Trap shooter crushed 48 of his 50 targets, equalling the World Record he set at last year’s World Cup Final and climbing atop the World Championship podium for the second time in his career.

The fourth and conclusive event of the day at the ISSF World Championship in Changwon (KOR) crowned 35-year-old shooter Alberto Fernandez of Spain, who won the second world title of his career.

Fernandez, who previously won the World Championship in Munich (GER) in 2010, only missed two of his 50 targets, prevailing over Slovakia’s two-time World Champion Erik Varga, who instead missed three clays.

“I feel delighted after winning my second World Championship and the Olympic quota place,” said the Spanish shooter, who finished the match with 48 hits and equaled the World Record he set at last year’s World Cup Final in New Delhi (IND). “I have a lot of people supporting me and this makes me very happy.”

Varga crushed 47 total targets, adding a silver medal to the two World Championship golds he won in Granada (ESP) in 2014 and Lonato (ITA) in 2015. Kuwait’s Abdulrahman Al Faihan, Junior World Champion in Zagreb (CRO) in 2006, completed the podium in 3rd place, taking bronze with 32 hits out of 40 clay targets.

Participating in the first final match of his career in the Trap Men event, Australia’s 22-year-old James Willett — a four-time World Cup medalist in the Double Trap Men event — placed just outside of the podium, hitting 28 of his 35 targets and finishing in 4th position.

The four Olympic quotas for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games were awarded to Spain, Slovakia, Kuwait and Australia.

After surviving a never-ending shoot-off at the end of the qualification round, where he shot more than 40 additional targets to enter the final, Italy’s Mauro De Filippis — gold medalist at this year’s ISSF World Cup stage in Changwon — concluded his match in 5th place with 23 crushed clays out of 30.

Despite earning himself the higher qualification bib, United States’ Walton Eller left the match after only 25 targets missing eight of them and placing 6th with 17 hits.

Along with the individual bronze, Kuwait also won the team gold medal with 360 total hits; the silver and bronze medals was awarded to the United States of America and Italy, who also finished with 360 hits, but took 2nd and 3rd place according to the countback rule.