Malta skeet shooter Clive Farrugia placed sixth in the ISSF World Cup final that was held on Thursday in Doha, Qatar.
Farrugia won a tense shoot-off to book his place into the final at the ISSC World Cup final but failed to make it past the first stage of the final as he was the first shooter to be eliminated when hitting 16 targets from 20.
The gold medal was won by Danish shooter Emil Petersen who prevailed in a nail-biting shoot-off with Egypt’s Azmy Mehelba that needed 26 shots to be decided.
Farrugia is coming from a very impressive year in skeet shooting as he not only managed to become the first Maltese shooter to win gold at the Games of the Small States of Europe, held in Malta last June, but he also managed some excellent results on the ISSF circuit.
In fact, this season, Farrugia has managed to qualify for several finals in World Cup shoots organised by the world governing body, to improve his ranking among the best 17 shooters in the category.
Earlier on Thursday, Farrugia further underlined his rise to prominence with a fine performance in the qualifying phase.
In fact, Farrugia compiled scores of 25, 23, 25, 25, 22 to amass 120 points and finish in joint sixth place with American shooter Dustan Taylor.
The shoot-off turned out to be a nail-biting affair which saw the Maltese shooter prevail after hitting four targets against the American’s three.
Finland’s Eetu Kallioinen topped the standings on 123 points, level with Azmy Mehelba, of Egypt. Denmark’s Emil Petersen (122), Italy’s Elia Sdruccioli (122) and Ben Llewellin, of England, who hit 121, are the other finalists.
A sixth-placing in such a prestigious final is still an excellent result for the Maltese shooter who in the coming months will step up his efforts to secure a place at the 2023 Paris Olympics next summer.
