Erik Varga retained his men's trap title after a nerve wracking shoot-off ©ISSF

Slovakia’s Erik Varga successfully defended his men’s trap title at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Shotgun World Championships, winning a thrilling shoot-off against home favourite Giovanni Pellielo in Lonato, Italy.

Varga reached the gold medal match after hitting 12 clay targets during his semi-final encounter with Belgium's Maxime Mottet and Spain's Alberto Fernandez.

The Slovakian star had to contend with the challenge of Pellielo in the final, after the Italian hit 13 targets in his semi-final, to the delight of a packed home crowd.

Pellielo looked poised to claim gold after opening a one-shot advantage in the closing stages of the final, but missed with his final shot, giving Varga an opportunity to take the match to a shoot-off and keep his bid for back-to-back titles alive.

He grasped his opportunity, forcing Pellielo to settle for his third World Championship silver medal after triumphing in the sudden death stage of the event.

A large crowd were left disappointed as Giovanni Pellielo was unable to win gold for the hosts
A large crowd were left disappointed as Giovanni Pellielo was unable to win gold for the hosts ©Twitter/ISSF

“I am very happy, I can't believe I won my second world title in a row,” Varga said.

“Lonato is a difficult range, I have been shooting here for years now, and today's qualification score of 120 hits is my personal best on this venue.

“I was really nervous going into the gold medal match.

“Pellielo is one of the best trap shooters of the world, and I knew it was going to be difficult.”

Mottet overcame Fernandez in the battle for bronze, winning 13-11 hits, with the result seeing the Belgian seal a Rio 2016 Olympic berth for his country.

Russia's squad of Alexey Alipov, Maksim Smykjov, Denis Zotov won the teams' gold with an overall score of 356 targets.

Pellielo's Italy, who also included Massimo Fabbrizi and Valerio Grazini, followed in second place with 354 hits scored by the same

Two targets behind them, with a combined scored of 352 clays, San Marino took the teams' bronze thanks to Stefano Selva, Gian Marco Berti and Manuel Mancini.



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