CAIRO, Egypt - Two-time Olympian Connie Smotek (Bryan, Texas) won the third medal for the U.S. at the 2009 ISSF World Cup for Shotgun when she claimed the bronze in the Women's Skeet event.
Smotek, the 2008 World Cup USA bronze medalist, went into the final in fifth place after shooting 70 targets in the qualification. Smotek climbed to third place after shooting a perfect 25 targets in the final to finish with a total score of 95 hits and a spot on the podium.
"I am very happy with the way that I shot today, and with the bronze medal," Smotek said. "This is the only world cup I am competing in this year, and I really loved competing at this shooting range."
Slovakian shooter Danka Bartekova won the gold medal with a total score of 97 hits after a shoot-off with Thailand's Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit. Bartekova entered the final match in third place, with a qualification score of 73 hits, and climbed the scoreboard to the highest step on the podium after a perfect final of 25 hits. Jiewchaloemmit tied the current World Record of 74 hits in the qualification and shot 23 targets in the final.
U.S. shooter Caitlin Connor (Winnfield, La.) qualified for the six-person final in her first ever ISSF World Cup today after hitting 70 targets in the qualification. Connor was tied with Smotek and China's Xiumin Yu following the qualification round and after the shoot-off, Connor took the sixth spot and shot 20 targets in the final for a total of 90 targets to finish in sixth place.
The Men's Skeet final will conclude the Cairo World Cup on Saturday. After the first competition day, Ukraine's Mikola Milchev is leading with a perfect score of 75 targets. Ennio Falco of Italy is in second place with 74 hits and Egypt's Franco Donato is in third with 73 hits. Sean McLelland (Mission, Texas), a 2008 Olympian, is currently in 35th place with 68 targets, while BJ Blanchard (Vidor, Texas) is in 48th place with 65 targets.
For complete results and news from the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Cairo, please visit ISSF's website at www.issf-sports.org.
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Winchester Ammunition is a Proud Sponsor of the USA Shooting Shotgun Team:
Winchester® Ammunition has been the exclusive ammunition sponsor and supplier of the USA Shooting Shotgun Team since 1999. Members of the 2008 shotgun team brought home four medals fromBeijing using Winchester AA International Target loads. Winchester is an industry leader in advancing and supporting conservation, hunter education and our country's proud shooting sports heritage. For more information about Winchester and its complete line of products, visit www.winchester.com.
