2023 ISSF World Championships in Baku: Efthimios Mitas wins men's skeet title as Greece, Finland, Denmark and Norway earn Paris 2024 berths
Greek shooter Mitas held off Finland's Eetu Kallioinen with Azmy Mehelba taking bronze for Egypt. Reigning world and Olympic champion Vincent Hancock finished fourth.
Shooting
Greece's Efthimios Mitas claimed the men's skeet title at the 2023 ISSF World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan on Saturday (19 August).
The 38-year-old two-time Olympian hit 56 out of 60 targets to edge out Finland's recent European Games bronze medallist Eetu Kallioinen in a nail-biting final with Egypt's Azmy Mehelba collecting the bronze.
Three-time Olympic and five-time individual world champion Vincent Hancock finished fourth ahead of Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Jesper Hansen and Norway's Erik Watndal.
With Hancock and Mehelba having previously secured Paris 2024 Olympic Games shooting quotas for their National Olympic Committees (NOCs), the other athletes in the final were guaranteed the four spots at stake in this competition. Those quotas went to Greece, Finland, Denmark and Norway.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the next Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
There are four more Paris quotas up for grabs in the women's 10m air rifle final, which begins at 18:00. Baku local time (14:00 UTC) and is being streamed live worldwide on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com.
Mitas holds nerve to claim first world title
Hancock went first as the top qualifier, but had a couple of uncharacteristic misses early on.
But it was Watndal, world silver medallist in 2018, who was first to depart from the six-man final as he hit just 15 of his first 20 clays.
Mitas, cheered on by a large group of Greek supporters, was leading the way with a perfect 20, one higher than Mehelba, with Kallioinen and Hansen tied at 18 and Hancock down in fifth with 17.
With the second elimination coming at the midway point of the 60-shot final, Hansen had a crucial miss with shot 26 to leave himself level with Hancock in fourth.
And Hancock made it 10 out of 10 from 20-30 with his lower start bib number - thanks to his superior performance in qualification - meaning the Dane could not progress. A resigned Hansen missed his last shot although a Paris 2024 quota place provided some consolation.
On the 30th shot, Mitas missed a target for the first time. Another miss moments later left the top three tied for the lead at 34 after 36 shots with Hancock just one adrift.
Hancock made his last four shots of the 40 knowing that one error from a rival would see him through by virtue of him topping qualification.
Mehelba and Kallionen both responded with four out of four with only Mitas left to shoot. And the Greek followed suit to send the USA great out.
The pressure was now well and truly on, and Mehelba had a double-miss on his second pull with Kallioinen missing once. Mitas took advantage, hitting four out of four to take the lead.
After 50 shots, Mehelba exited with Mitas two clear of his Finnish rival.
But then the Greek faltered, missing two of his next six targets to enable Kallioinen to level on 52 shots out of 56.
One series of four shots remained for each man, and Kallionen had one miss to leave the door open. Mitas made no mistake, hitting four out of four before joyfully setting off on a short lap of honour.
Results from men's skeet final at the 2023 ISSF World Championship in Baku, Azerbaijan:
- Efthimios Mitas (GRE) - 56 - Also earns Paris 2024 berth for Greece
- Eetu Kallioinen (FIN) - 55 - Also earns Paris 2024 berth for Finland
- Azmy Mehelba (EGY) - 46 (from 50 shots)
- Vincent Hancock (USA) - 37 (40)
- Jesper Hansen (DEN) - 26 (30) - Also earns Paris 2024 berth for Denmark
- Erik Watndal (NOR) - 15 (20) - Also earns Paris 2024 berth for Norway