Gabriele Rossetti Skeet Olympic gold

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 13, 2016: Gabriele Rossetti Skeet Olympic gold, Gabriele, the son of 1992 Olympic Bronze medalist Bruno, defeat Marcus Svensson of Sweden by hitting all his targets: 94 clays in a row without missing a single shot, between qualifications, shoot-off, semi-final and gold medal match. Earlier this morning, Christian Reitz secured Germany’s third rifle and pistol gold in a row here in Rio.

Gabriele Rossetti of Italy added an Olympic gold to the family’s medals showcase, as he won today’s Skeet Men final in Rio de Janeiro, in sight of his father Bruno, a 1992 Olympic bronze medalist in Barcelona.

Gabriele (21) did not leave anything to chance. After scoring 121 targets out of 125 at the qualifications, he basically shuttered each and every clay thrown ahead of him. First he cleared a shoot-off to access the semi-final with 12 hits out of 12, then he shot a perfect 16 out of 16 to advance to the Gold medal match. There, he met and beat Sweden’s 26-year old Marcus Svensson, firing another perfect round of 16 hits.

“I was confident I could make it,” Rossetti said. “We are a strong team, Italy won three out of the six Skeet medals up for grabs here in Rio, I feel part of a great family.”

Gabriele’s father Bruno, the 1992 Skeet Olympic Bronze medalist is now the coach of the French team. To get into the final, Gabriele had to shoot-off Anthony Terras, the top-ranked French skeet shooter.

“I am the coach of the French team, but my heart will always be with my son Gabriele,” Bruno said. “He finished the job I had started 24 years ago. I lost Barcelona’s gold by missing my last target, today Gabriele did better than me, he is more competitive than I was.”

Thousands of Brazilian fans crowding the Olympic Shooting Centre of Deodoro cheered up for the Independent Olympic Athlete Abdullah Alrashidi (52), who won the Bronzemedal match beating 16 to 14 hits the 2000 Olympic Champion and Ukrainian flag-bearer Mikola Milchev (48).

“Bigode! Bigode!” (mustache in Portuguese) was the cheering that resounded from the first to the last shot of the medal match, referring to the big mustache of the veteran shooter, who finally finished on the podium at his 6th Olympic participation.

“Today I feel like I am Brazilian – said Alrashidi – the support I have received here today is incredible. The crowd lifted me on the podium.”

Christian Reitz triumphed in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men final earlier today, pocketing Germany’s third Olympic gold in a row within three days, here at the Olympic Shooting Centre in Deodoro, after the successes of Barbara Engleder and Henri Junghaenel on the 11 and 12 of August.

Reitz scored 34 hits, equaling the Final Olympic Record set by the Cuba’s Leuris Pupo in London four years ago, and beat France’s Jean Quiquampoix (2nd with 30 hits) and the People’s Republic of China’s Li Yuehong (3rd with 27). The German winner had also equaled the Olympic record of 592 points during the morning’s qualifications. Reitz left his opponents four hits behind him, to secure his second Olympic medal after Beijing 2008’s bronze.

20-year old Jean Quiquampoix, the current ISSF World Cup title holder competing in his first Olympics, passed through three shoot-off shots to reach the second step of the podium, beating China’s Li Yuehong with a score of 5-3-5 to 5-3-3.

Tomorrow, the last Shooting sport final of Rio 2016 – the men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions– will take place at 13.00 (UTC-3). —- ISSF