UKRAINE AND RUSSIAN FEDERATION RULED THE SIUS EUROPEAN YOUTH LEAGUE FINAL

21 October 2018

There were seen tears of joy and happiness when the Medal Matches were over in the SIUS European Youth League Final in Kisakallio, Finland. But one of the main things was that the athletes congratulated and thanked each others and hugs showed clearly that they had competed with friends.

Czech won the bronze medal after shoot-off in Air Pistol

Bronze matches were the events, which competed first in the morning. In the Air Pistol Bronze Match met Czech Republic and Italy. Czech team had a strong start and they were leading 28 -20 after eight shots. Then Italy started to shoot more calmly and when it was shot half of the shots (10), the Czech team was leading only with two points (there pairs and you compete against your pair, victory means 2 point) 31-29. 

After 11th shots Italy went first time to the lead and looked like that Italy is taking the victory. It was leading already with a difference 10 points. When athletes had shot 19 shots, the situation was still for Italy 60-54, the last shots to go. And what happened, Czech athletes won all their matches and took 6 points and game was tie 60-60. Shoot-off was needed. 

When the announcer told the results of the shoot-off shots the Czech team members were so surprised from victory that they didn’t believe it at once. Bronze to Czech Republic!


«I was too satisfied when we had so good start, so I thought that this will be an easy match. It backfired when I didn’t keep my concentration and I started to hesitate. Then I said to myself that I do not have anything to lose, only concentrate and relax. And then we started to climb up slowly», told Jan Vildomec from Czech team.

Italy won Sweden in Rifle Bronze Match

The Air Rifle bronze match Sweden-Italy was not as wavy as in Air Pistol. The Italian team ruled all the time, but the difference wasn’t big, but it was sure. Italy was leading all the time, but the difference was only maximum 10 points, nearly all the time, only about 4-5 point. After 19th shot Italy was leading by the difference of four points 55-59. The Swedish took two victories and lost one. It was not enough and meant that Italy won the Air Rifle bronze.

«We perhaps wanted the medals more, shooting was not so calm as usual and we were a little bit nervous, but we managed anyway keep the leading until to end», explained Sofia Benetti from the bronze team Italy.

Ukraine ruled the Air Pistol Gold Match

Pistol shooting is strong in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Youth League team show that there will be growing new champions behind the current masters. Ukraine was superior in their match and won Russian Federation with result 73-47. Ukraine ruled the whole gold match and when the athletes had shot half of the shots (10), Ukraine was leading already clearly 48-12. After 15th shot it was leading already 63-27.




The rest was history and beautiful victory for Ukraine with result 73-47. Silver to Russian Federation. The Ukraine Gold Match team consisted of Ihor Solovei, Hiib Kihitov and Mariia-Solomiia Vozniak. 

Russian team for superior victory in Air Rifle Gold Match

The qualification matches promised that the Gold Match Serbia-Russia will be very tight and exciting. After qualification rounds it looked that Serbia would be some kind of a favourite, so strong their performance was yesterday even they had one lost. But same did also Russian team yesterday.

But what happened in the Gold Match? Shortly not anything special. The Russian athletes ruled and won clearly (15-25, 15-25 and 16-24) their matches. The strength of team was that the team was a balanced team who had a good humour and spirit. 

Russian team took the lead from the first shot and kept it until to the end. Russian Federation won with result 74-46. The Russian team consisted of Tatiana Kharkova, Polina Bolotkova and Alexander Vasilyev.




All the medal teams of the both disciplines awarded of course with the medals, winners with fine challenge cups, but also with a personal gift from the ESC President Vladimir Lisin, with SIUS Ascor Electronic Scoring Targets (winner team 3 targets, silver two and bronze team one).



Next time in Budapest 2019

The short closing ceremony was organised just after the awarding ceremonies, in which Kerstin Bodin, former ESC Vice-President declared the Final event closed and welcomed the athletes to the next final, which will be organised in Budapest, Hungary, 2019.

«Then we have new rules and the World Championship will be added to the name of this event. This Final event was a nice 10th Anniversary Party», finished Bodin.

Results can be found here.

Photos can be found here.


Risto Aarrekivi


Posted by Thom Erik Syrdahl
Source:- http://www.esc-shooting.org/news

Manu Bhaker

Gold, Women’s 10m air pistol gold

Bhaker, India’s teenage shooting sensation, added the Youth Olympic Games Women’s 10m Air Pistol Gold to a growing collection of gold medals, winning the event on day three of the Buenos Aires 2018 games with a score of 236.5. She thus became India’s first Youth Olympic Games Gold medalist in the sport of shooting.

Born to an engineer from the Merchant Navy and a school principal, she comes from village of Goria in Haryana. She stole the show at the 2017 National Championships in Kerala, where she won nine golds and broke the national record, held by Sidhu. She has won gold at Commonwealth Games, at ISSF World Cup in Mexico and at ISSF Junior World Cup in Sydney and Suhl — all these coming in 2018. She went without a medal at Asian Games but her coach Jaspal Rana said it spurred her on.

“Yes, I think definitely that could help. Though we all want to win but you can’t win everyday. You will rise one day, you will fall another. That’s how it is,” he said.

“But she has done well and I am really happy for her. There was pressure and there were so much expectations, which I don’t think is fair. At the end of the day, one must remember that she’s just a 16-year-old.”

Saurabh Chaudhary

Gold, Men’s 10m air pistol

Winning a gold medal at any age group level in a multi-national event is not easy but 16-year-old Chauhdary sure made it appear so when he blew the field away in the 10m air pistol final to clinch India’s third gold medal at the Games in Buneos Aires. The 16-year-old set the pace throughout the final as he finished a massive 7.5 points ahead of his closest rival.

Saurabh hails from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh and trains at the Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi. He has already won a gold medal at the Asian Games, which was his first major senior international event and is a junior World Champion as well. In the last one year, the teenager from Uttar Pradesh has done well at the national level, holding his own among veteran pistol shooters, and has notched up impressive numbers on the international junior circuit.

In 2018, he also bagged the gold in 10m air pistol with a junior world record score at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl in Germany. At the same event, he had won the mixed team gold with Devanshi Rana, ahead of compatriots Manu Bhaker and Anmol Jain.

Tushar Shahu Mane

Silver, Men’s 10m air rifle

The one who kick-started India’s medal rush in Buenos Aires. Shahu Tushar Mane clinched a silver in the men’s 10m air rifle on the opening day of competitions in Buenos Aires. Mane, who qualified third for the final, shot 247.5 to win the silver while Grigorii Shamakov took the gold with 249.2. Aleksa Mitrovic of Serbia won the bronze with a score of 227.9.

“He is slightly disappointed at having won the silver,” Suma Shirur, high-performance coach of the Indian junior team (rifle), was quoted as saying by DNA.

“This is where the children of today are different from before. His goal was to go for gold. So, even though he is happy at being India’s first medallist at these Games, there is a feeling within him that he could’ve done better. That says a lot about his attitude and hunger,” she added.

Posted by Thom Erik Syrdahl

ISSF Academy completes the 9th IOC/ISSF Training Systems Development Course

The course was held in Bar (MNE), between October 21st and October 26th, and it covered various topics with lectures and workshops.

The 9th IOC/ISSF Training Systems Development Course was conducted at the ISSF Accredited Training Centre in Bar (MNE) between the 21st and the 26th of October 2018.

The course was attended by participants from member federations from as far as Colombia, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, who took part in an extensive series of lectures and workshops with the goal to aid ISSF member federations to implement structured training and development programmes.

Many of the students’ experiences were shared during the group workshops — which were led by ISSF Academy tutors Dr. Kevin Kilty of Ireland and Dr. Zeljko Todorovic of Montenegro. Lectures covered areas such as building a coaching team, talent identification, high performance training systems, club development, training session development and financial planning.

“This course has grown over the years to become one of our most popular annual courses,” said Dr. Kilty. “We strive to give our member federations access to the latest developments in how they can structure a national or club-based training system. The ISSF Academy endeavors to maintain a strong relationship with our federations to support them during this process and we are delighted to see the fruits of our work from this course through an increase in the number of participants in our championship events.”

Course participant Mrs. Edna Yessenia Monzon Villatoro, who is also the President of the Guatemalan Shooting Federation, said: “The course was fantastic! I found the subjects covered very interesting as they touch on the very areas that we are working on in our federation. I learned a lot from the other federations who shared some of their experiences with us and for that alone it was worth attending the course.”

The IOC/ISSF Training Systems Development Course has become very popular amongst member federations and the course will return for its 10th edition in October 2019, also in Bar.

ISSF Academy

Posted by Thom Erik Syrdahl

Source: - ISSF Website..

Team USA: Caitlin Connor Receives Olympic Committee Honors

by SSUSA Staff - Wednesday, October 24, 2018

The U.S. Olympic Committee has a monthly “Best Of” award, and thanks to her outstanding performance at the 2018 ISSF World Championships in South Korea, skeet shooter Caitlin Connor won the Best of September female athlete for Team USA. She received a very respectable 30 percent of the vote.

Kim Rhode and Caitlin Connor fist bump at the 2018 ISSF World Championships 

in Changwon, South Korea.

At the ISSF World Championships in Changwon, South Korea, Connor won her very-first gold medal after defeating teammate (and shooting mentor) Kim Rhode in the final by a lone clay. They were tied going in to the last station during the final. The win marked the fourth consecutive women’s skeet championship won by a U.S. shooter.

In a USA Shooting press release, Connor said, “I was pretty emotional during that final because I’ve never had the feeling during a final that I was going to win and the whole time I thought ‘I’m going to win this thing!’ I wanted to cry after my third pass through! I just kept thinking ‘Stay strong, focus on what you’re doing, and it will be fine.’”


Caitlin Connor, Kim Rhode (l.) and Amber English on the podium at the 

ISSF World Championships in South Korea. The last time Team USA 

swept an open World Championship was in 1974.

Connor, age 27 and a native of Winnfield, LA, is the first woman shooter recognized for a monthly Team USA Best of award since the format was revised. Each Olympic discipline NGB (National Governing Body) nominates three athlete(s) each month: one man, one woman and one team nominee. The coolest part about the Team USA monthly honors is that 50 percent of the final tally is determined by fans voting online. NGB officials and the media provide the other 50 percent of the votes.

Below are the four other athletes that were nominated for the September 2018 Team USA Female Athlete of the Month, along with their share of the votes cast:

1.  Laura Graves (Equestrian), 26 percent
2.  Allysa Seely (Paratriathlon), 17 percent
3.  Rebecca Hart (Para-equestrian), 15 percent
4.  Katie Zaferes (Triathlon), 13 percent

Photos courtesy of USA Shooting

Posted by Thom Erik Syrdahl
Source:- https://www.ssusa.org/articles/2018/10/24/team-usa-caitlin-connor-receives-olympic-committee-honors/

Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games unveil competition schedule

The Paralympics will take place in Tokyo (JPN) from August 25th to September 6th, where more than 4.000 athletes are expected to participate.

The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee published the sport competition schedule by session of the Paralympic Games, following the approval of the International Paralympic Committee. The schedule remains subject to change after further adjustments. 

The opening ceremony of the 2020 Paralympic Games will be held on August 25th, while the competition will close on September 6th. Around 4.400 athletes will participate, competing in 22 sports and 540 events.

In compiling the sport competition schedule, the Organizing Committee took a holistic approach, taking into account the athletes’ experience and well-being, technical rules and regulations of the various international federations, gender balance, popularity of individual sports in Japan, operational considerations and global TV audience.  

Ticket sales are set to start in the summer of 2019 and the plan is to publish the updated schedule of all 540 medal events by then.

Yoshiro Mori, President of the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, said: “The schedule for 12 days of fierce competition between a record number of Paralympians from around the world has been framed. A total of 22 sports are scheduled, spread in a well-balanced manner across the length of the Games, so spectators can enjoy the dramatic highs and lows from beginning to end. From now on, I would like people from around the world to look forward to the Games.”

“We believe that watching a powerful display of sporting prowess on-site, with the high performances of Paralympians who are pushing their limits to create the drama of the Games, will be an experience that reaches many people’s hearts,” he added.

“I would like to thank those who were involved over a long period of time in the coordination of the competition schedule, including the IPC and the IFs. Tokyo 2020 will continue to work on further preparations for the Games,” concluded Mr. Mori.

Thirteen shooting sport events will be contested at the Paralympic Games: three men’s, three women’s and seven mixed ones. Shooting sport matches will take place at the Asaka Shooting Range from August 31st to September 6th.

For more details please visit: https://tokyo2020.org/en/games/schedule/paralympic/.

Tokyo 2020 Press Office

Posted by Thom Erik Syrdahl

Source: - ISSF Website