European Championship Shotgun: Olympic champ Jiri Liptak wins European men's trap crown to secure Czech men quota place at Paris 2024
Liptak made every shot in the final with Richard Levin-Andersson taking second to seal a quota berth for Sweden at the next Olympic Games.
Shooting
Reigning Olympic men's trap champion Jiri Liptak was in a class of his own at the European Championships in Shotgun on Saturday (27 August) in Larnaca, Cyprus.
The 40-year-old Czech was perfect in the medal match, hitting 31 clays out of 31 to give him an unassailable lead and clinch a quota berth in men's trap shooting at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Richard Levin-Andersson (25 from 30), in his first senior final, took second to clinch a quota spot for Sweden ahead of Britain's bronze medallist Nathan Hales.
Both men had 21 shots out of 25, but Levin-Andersson's higher seeding from the previous rounds saw him through to the decider.
Portugal's Armelim Rodrigues was the first man eliminated from the medal match, making just 10 of his 15 shots with Levin-Andersson and Hales on 12 apiece and Liptak the model of perfection.
Liptak showed the benefit of his vast experience edge as the only man of the four to make all three of his opening shots.
He went on to make five out of five in his opening series for a lead of two over the rest of the field which he never looked like relinquishing and went one better than his silver in Croatia last year.
Reigning champion and Olympic bronze medallist Matt Coward-Holley went out in the second ranking match (semi-final), finishing two points behind team-mate Hales and Levin-Andersson.