Italy’s Jessica Rossi performed in emphatic fashion in the final shoot-out against Russia’s Ekaterina Rabaya to win the Qatar Open Shotgun Championship trap gold at the Lusail Shooting Range yesterday. The 2012 Olympic Games gold medallist won 14-12.
Rossi said she was happy to begin the season on a winning note in Qatar.


The junior trap honours were claimed by Kazakh Sarsenkul Rysbekova, followed by Qatar’s Badria al-Binali (right) and Stephanie Pile of Australia.

“I am happy to win the title which is my first in Qatar. I had been here two years back, but was not so lucky. For some reason, I could not make the trip last year,” she said. “In Italy, it is very cold at this time of the year and I had good scores in the competition. It’s a good to start a season with a win against your name.
The 24-year-old missed just one target out of the 15 in the final round while her final opponent Rabaya could not get her act together, missing three clay pigeons in the process.
The Russian missed the fourth target, and thereafter kept an eye on the scoreboard to check if the reigning Olympic champion missed out on any target, which she didn’t.
The 21-old-year further compounded her misery by missing a second target and a third one and although Rossi missed the one in the 14th attempt, the Italian kept her cool to shoot down the 15th and final clay pigeon to clinch the title and the top prize of $6,000.
“It is always a nice feeling to collect the winner’s cash prize after all the hard work, but I am more happy to win the competition,” Rossi said.
Talking about the wind condition, she said she didn’t give it much of a thought.
“I just tried to concentrate on my shooting and not think about the windy conditions. All I was thinking about was having a good score. In the end, it was very good,” added Rossi, who was voted Shooter of the Year in 2013 by a panel consisting of ISSF Athletes Committee, ISSF Coaches Advisory Committee and by a panel of international sport journalists.
Runner-up Rabaya said more than the winds it was lack of focus which kept her away from the top prize.
“The final result was not good for me personally, but I am glad that I managed to finish second. Qatar is a good place, a good shooting range and a nice place to start the new season. I was nervous in the final, but it was not due to the wind that I lost. I erred with my concentration which made the difference in the end,” said Rabaya.
Catherine Skinner of Australia finished third, defeating Mariya Dmitriyenko of Kazakhstan 9-8 in the bronze medal match. “The pressure really gets on you, you have to keep going because you never know what your competitor is doing neither,” said Skinner after the closely fought shootout.
Skinner said a variety of factors build the pressure on the shooters. “It may be the windy conditions and nerves, but there could be several other things. The timer when the target is released and you have to shoot with a x number of seconds also builds up the pressure,” the 26-year-old Australian reasoned.
“Any sort of win is a happy feeling for me to start a new year. It is for the first time I got a third-place finish in Qatar. I missed out on a semi-final place in a shoot-out few years back, so I am quite  happy with the end result,” she added.
Italy’s Silvana Stanco finished fifth, shooting down 10 targets in the semifinals, the same as Russia’s Tatiana Barsuk.
In the women’s junior trap event, Sarsenkul Rysbekova of Kazakhstan finished on top followed by Qatar’s Badria al-Binali and Stephanie Pile of Australia.