ISSF World Cup Final running in Gabala
By Amina Nazarli
International Sport Shooting Federation (ISSF) World Cup Final is underway in the Azerbaijan’s northern region of Gabala, bringing together about 2,000 athletes from 100 countries.
In the 10m Air Rifle Men final on August 10, Yifei Cao of China beat all his rivals and won gold medal.
Spotlights turned on the 2012 Asian Champion Cao Yifei (27), ranked 9th in the world, after his spectacular victory.
Qualified with 628.9 points, the Chinese athlete took the lead half way through the final, and kept it right to the end, with a few tenth of advantage over his opponents.
Cao sealed the victory marking a final score of 207.4 points, leaving his closest opponent - Korea's Kim Sang Do in second place 0.5 points behind, with a score of 206.9 points. Petar Gorsa of Croatia earned the bronze with 186.5 points.
The competition in the 10m Air Rifle Women held on the same day ended with the victory of Iranian Elaheh Ahmadi.
Ahmadi won the gold with 207.8 points. She beat China's Zhang Binbin, the silver medalist, by just 0.4. Another Iranian shooter Najmeh Khedmati claimed the bronze, with 185.5 points.
Jointly organized by the National Olympic Committee, Youth and Sports Ministry, Gabala Shooting Club, and the Azerbaijani Shooting Federation, the competition brings together best athletes to compete in the rifle, pistol, and shotgun shooting disciplines.
The hallmark of the event is that 34 of the winning athletes will qualify to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio.
This is the sixth stage of the competition. The previous five qualifying stages of the World Cup were held in the USA, Germany, UAE, Cyprus, and Mexico throughout the year.
The competition, which includes 17 types of shooting sports will last until August 16.
Azerbaijan is being represented by 27 athletes at the event, including Emil Jafarov, Nurlana Jafarova, Pasha Ahadpur, Niyaz Agazade, and others.
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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
Twitter: @amina_nazarli
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