Italy and Great Britain shine in Al Ain

Italy and Great Britain had a chance to flex their shooting Para sport muscles on Sunday (25 March) at the World Shooting Para Sport World Cup in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Both countries proved dominant in both the individual and team disciplines, on day four of the season’s first World Cup.

For Italy, success came in the PT2 (Lower Limb), riding its authoritative momentum from yesterday’s outing.

Raffaele Talamo, with an outstanding finals score of 44, led the way for the nation on PT2 as it completed a clean sweep of the podium. Compatriots Saverio Cuciti (41) and Alessandro Spagnoli (32) took silver and bronze respectively. Talamo’s score, highlighted by a streak of hitting 15-straight targets, marked a new world record, eclipsing Cuciti’s score of 42 set last September.

Italian sharp shooter Francesco Nespeca shot a 37 for gold in the PT3 (upper limb). Despite a slow start, countryman Paolo Bortolin (28) took silver. Denmark’s Poul Kim Nyby shot a 20 for the bronze medal.

Great Britain’s success came in the R4 (10m air rifle standing mixed SH2), translating its high scores from Saturday into success on Sunday. Ryan Cockbill, Tim Jeffery and James Bevis, all of whom led their squad to a R9 (50m rifle prone mixed SH2) gold the day prior, saw another top prize. It came in the form of a final score of 1885.0 after a red hot start. France’s Alan Quittet, Tanguay De La Forest and Dylan Kerreneur (1870.4) held strong in second, and Thailand’s Chatchai Senachan, Dutsara Thongdee and Anuson Chaichamnan (1860.9) took third.

In the PT1 (seated), Great Britain added to its medal collection on the individual side of the competition. Allan Ritchie, started shaky but regained his composure to nab the gold at 34. Australia’s Scottie Brydon grabbed the silver at 32, and Italy’s Oreste Lai won bronze at 26.

Swede shins in R4

Sweden’s Philip Jonsonn continued the World Cup’s daily streak of setting new world records. His record-setting performance came in the R4 (10m air rifle standing mixed SH2). His finals round score finished at 253.3, breaking the score of 253.0 set by Kuwait’s Aetf Aldousari at Al Ain in 25 February of 2017. Slovakia’s Gorazd Francek Tirsek finished just behind Jonsson at 252.9. Ukraine’s Vasyl Kovalchuk (230.0) took the bronze medal.

Iran ahead in P4

In the second relay of the elimination round of the P4, Mahdi Zamanishurabi and Iran are holding strong in the team round of P4 (50m pistol mixed SH1). Coming off of top performances from Zamanishurabi, Sareh Javanmardi and Samira Eram, Iran finished with a score of 1605. South Korea, with Youngkyun Seo, Jungnam Kim and Daesu Jang (1577) are lying in second, with Ukraine’s Andriy Zakhvatayev, Yurii Matafonov and Oleksii Denysiuk (1543) in third.

Ukraine leading prelims of R6

In the preliminary rounds of the R6 (50m rifle prone mixed SH1), Ukraine’s Yurii Stoiev, Iryna Shchetnik and Andrii Doroshenko (1842.8) finished in first, ahead of United Aram Emirates’s Obaid Aldahmani, Abdulla Sultan Alaryani and Abdulla Saif Alaryani (1835.9) and China’s Cuiping Zhang, Xinxin Wang and Chao Dong (1831.0).

Action will continue on Monday (26 March) at the Al Ain 2018 World Shooting Para Sport World Cup. Live results are available on the World Shooting Para Sport website