ISSF World Cup 2024 Lonato: Catherine Skinner’s bronze medal Australia’s only podium finish in Italy
Catherine Skinner, a Rio 2016 Olympic champion, accompanied Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medallists Zuzana Rehak and Fatima Galvez on the women’s trap podium.
Shooting
Australian shooters finished the ISSF Shotgun World Cup 2024 in Lonato, Italy with one medal – Catherine Skinner’s bronze in the women’s trap event – on Wednesday.
Catherine Skinner, an Olympic gold medallist from Rio 2016, shot 31 in the women’s trap final to finish third on the third day of the competition.
Slovakia’s Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova, the reigning women’s trap Olympic champion, won the gold medal at Lonato after shooting 45 while another Olympic champion, Fatima Galvez of Spain, claimed the silver with a score of 41.
This was the 11th ISSF World Cup medal for Catherine and her sixth individual podium finish. Catherine has clinched two gold medals in trap team events in ISSF World Cups, including one in Lonato in 2022.
The 34-year-old Aussie shooter, competing in the final shotgun World Cup of the year, shot 119 out of 125 targets to finish third in the qualifiers. World No. 1 Fatima Galvez finished second with the same score after winning a shoot-off.
Zuzana Rehak topped the qualification rounds with a score of 124.
In the final, Skinner and Galvez were tied for second place after the 6th place elimination before Galvez gradually pulled ahead to win the silver. Zuzana dominated the final from the start and took the gold.
Australia’s James Willett also made it to the final of the men’s trap event in Lonato. However, he finished fifth in the final after shooting 24. Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Matthew Coward-Holley of Great Britain won the gold medal with a score of 47.
Former world champion Daniele Resca of Italy shot 45 to take the silver while Yu Haicheng of the People’s Republic of China settled for bronze with 34.
Willett, a former world champion, recently won the men’s trap gold medal at the ISSF World Cup in Baku.
Besides Skinner and Willett, Penny Smith and Mitchell Iles of Australia also competed in trap events but failed to progress to the final.
Skeet shooters Joshua Bell and Aislin Jones couldn’t make it to the finals of their respective individual events. The duo also failed to make the medal round in the mixed team competition.