Shooter William Chetcuti today won the gold medal in an ISSF World Cup double trap competition held in Azerbaijan today.
Chetcuti won ahead of Italy's Marco Innocenti.
Chetcuti will be representing Malta in the Rio Olympics in August.
Chetcuti had won the 2011 World Cup event in Beijing and the 2004 European Junior Championship where he set what is still a world record. He was the first Maltese shooter to win a World Cup medal.
He had also won a bronze medal at both the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games.
The ISSF World Cup in Baku continued with three more medal events. Malta’s Chetcuti won the men’s Double Trap Final, Bulgaria’s Boneva secured her first 25m Pistol Women gold, and Brazil’s Olympic hope Wu finished in the spotlights once again at the men’s 10m Air Pistol match.
Day-4 of the ISSF Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, saw Brazil, Bulgaria and Malta atop of the podium, in three different medal events.
William Chetcuti of Malta claimed the men’s Double Trap gold medal in the last event of the day. The 31-year old shooter finished his competition in style, beating Italy’s Marco Innocenti (37) in a shoot-off for Gold by 2 to 1 hits at the end of a thrilling gold medal match. Only the tiebreaker could separate them, as they finished the qualifications (139 hits), the semi-final (29 hits) and the gold medal match (28 hits) with the same scores.
“It’s great to win my second world cup gold in career, especially now. After this match, I am heading to the European Championship and then to the Games,” said Chetcuti, who has just been granted a Tripartite Commission Invitation place for Rio 2016. “It will be my fourth Olympics, following Athens, Beijing and London. I’ve placed 9th, 8th, and 9th in past Games… I hope this time I will make it to the final, and then I will have my chance.”