The 2014 ISSF World Cup Final in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun events held in Gabala, Azerbaijan, from the 21st to the 28th of October, came to an end today.

 

154 athletes coming from 39 countries competed there in the 15 Olympic shooting events. Only the bests qualified to participate: the 2013 World Cup Final title defenders and the 2014 ISSF World Championship medallists met the top-8 athletes in each event, selected through this year's ISSF World Cup Stages held in Fort Benning (USA), Tucson (USA), Almaty (KAZ), Munich (GER), Maribor (SLO) and Beijing (CHN).

 

The Russian Federation finished atop of the medal standing, pocketing 5 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medals here in Gabala. The People's Republic of China closed the event in second in spite of collecting an impressive total of 14 medals (3 Gold, 3 Silver, 8 Bronze). Germany followed in third with 2 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medals.

 

Two records were equalled during the competition: USA's Haley Dunn equalled the current Skeet Women World Record of 74 hits out of 75 targets, while Russia's Leonid Ekimov equalled the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men Final World Record of 35 points.

 

“This year's ISSF World Cup Final has been a great success.” The ISSF Secretary General Franz Schreiber said. “The athletes gave their best at the end of an intense season, and we would like to thank the organizers of this event who set up an excellent shooting range. This new facility in Gabala will host a combined ISSF World Cup Stage next year, and we are looking forward to come back here.”

 

The ISSF World Cup Final concluded the 2014 international shooting sport season. The 2015 ISSF World Cup Series will kick-off from Acapulco (MEX) on the 28 of February, next year. 

 The contest has been organized by the Gabala Shooting Club and Azerbaijan Shooting Federation, as well as powered by National Olympic Committee, Youth and Sports Ministry of the country.

Azerbaijan will be represented with Nurlana Jafarova, and Emin Jafarov (both in round stand), also with Irada Ashumova and Ruslan Lunyov (both in bullet shooting).

Aşumova and Ruslan Lunyov shot in 25 m distance, respectively, to be the 11th amongst 11 snipers and 9th amongst 12 shooters. The compatriots did not attend the next shootings of further distances.

And Emin could move up to the final of the championship after the qualifying round to take the 5th place while Nurlana gained the 7th.