Australian shooter James Willett clinched the gold medal in the men’s trap shooting event at the ISSF World Cup 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Willett, a two-time Olympian and previous gold medal winner at the World Championships, finished fifth in the qualifiers with a score of 121, securing a spot in the six-man finals. Despite a slow start in the medal round, Willet delivered an incredible performance to claim the top spot on the podium with a score of 46, missing just one shot out of 30 in the last six series. This victory marked Willet’s first individual gold at the ISSF World Cup since Acapulco 2019, with Slovakia’s Filip Marinov and Jean Pierre Brol Cardenas of Guatemala taking the silver and bronze medals respectively.
On the other hand, Penny Smith, a 29-year-old shooter who placed sixth in women’s trap at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, began her campaign in Baku by coming out on top in the qualifiers with an impressive score of 116. Smith started strong but faced a hiccup in the fifth series where she landed just two out of her five shots resulting in her loss of lead to Lebanon’s Bassil Ray. Ray claimed gold with a score of 44 while Smith tallied silver with 40 points. Erica Sessa from Italy secured bronze medal with a score of 34. This silver medal added to Smith’s impressive record at ISSF World Cup bringing her total tally to eleven medals including six golds three silvers and two bronze medals.