The first outcomes of the Italian leg of the 2021 World Cup have just arrived. The best athletes will compete until May 17 in the third stage of this international competition held at Trap Concaverde shooting range in Lonato del Garda, a municipality in the territory of Lake Benaco a few kilometres from the Gemini headquarters.
Tammaro Cassandro and Danka Bartekovà got to the highest steps of the podium, both placing third.
The Carabinieri Arms Officer hailing from Caserta hit a perfect 125 out of 125 during the qualification round, failing, however, to confirm the excellent performance at the crucial moment. Despite that he managed to reach the podium crumbling 45 clay targets out of 50, a result which allowed him to climb onto the third step. The Egyptian Azmy Mehelba took the victory, winning gold with 56 out of 60 and classifying ahead of the U.S. athlete Vincent Hancock, the silver medalist who broke only one less target. Conversely the Peruvian Nicholas Pacheco Espinosa, also provided with Gemini chokes, finished off the podium.
“After an excellent qualification, I expected a better round”, Cassandro said revealing a hint of bitterness. “On the other hand the satisfaction remains for climbing the podium of an international competition after the long period of stoppage imposed by Coronavirus pandemic”.
As for Women’s Skeet the skilled Danka Bartekovà placed third hitting 43 out of 50. The Slovakian, winner in the previous event in Cairo, stated she felt a lot of pressure in the final moments. Anyway, the bronze medal arrived along with her happiness for overcoming a difficult circumstance in the best way.
Two other athletes relying on our chokes missed the podium: the czech Anna Sindelarova, achieved a fourth-place finishing with a fair 35 out 40 while the italian Chiara Cainero, was only fifth with 24 out of 30, a result that she herself declares not up to her standards.
A prestigious parterre for the final round, in which other renowned athletes didn’t manage to take part, such as the olympic and world champion Diana Bacosi, who placed seventh and Jakub Tomeček, eleventh.
Hence the first tournament event ends up with two medals for Gemini and one for Italy, on balance we feel great satisfaction for bringing our chokes in the finals.
Besides that the presence of Giovanni and Marco Grassi is particularly worthy of note (respectively the owner of Winshoot and his son, ed.), who took the most of the competitions to meet again closely the various athletes who are part of the Gemini sports crew which is becoming more and more numerous day after day.