Rhode Golden, Simonton Silver in Women’s Skeet at 2026 ISSF World Cup Hangzhou

Kim Rhode broke 34 of 36 targets in the women’s skeet final at the 2026 ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun in Hangzhou, China, on Thursday, July 23, finishing two targets clear of U.S. teammate Samantha Simonton for gold.

Simonton posted 32 for silver in her first trip to the podium at this ISSF World Cup, and China’s Che Yufei took bronze with 28 in front of a home crowd. Rhode, a six-time Olympic medalist with three golds among them, has now medaled internationally across four decades.

Getting to the podium was the harder part of Rhode’s week. She left Wednesday’s qualification round eighth and last into the final with 119, and only after outshooting Slovakia’s Danka Hrbekova, 4-3, in a shoot-off for the final bib. Rhode’s card read 24-22-25-24-24 across the five rounds, with the lone 22 in the second string doing most of the damage.

Team USA’s Kim Rhode broke 34 of 36 for women’s skeet gold at the ISSF World Cup in Hangzhou. . (Photo courtesy of Andrea Caroppo/ISSF)

Simonton had a cleaner path. She ran 25-25-24-23-25 for 122 and the No. 2 bib in the final, one target behind qualification leader Yiting Jiang of China. Jiang never found that form again on finals day, though, and dropped to fifth with 19. Dania Vizzi was the third U.S. shooter in the field, closing qualification 20th with 115 out of a 48-shooter entry list.

Competition runs July 20-29 at the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Center in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Four combined trap and skeet ranges sit on the grounds, all of them firing north and running Laporte machines out of France with acoustic release systems and electronic scoreboards from Elettronica Progetti of Italy. Laporte also supplied the targets, an eco-friendly clay thrown in standard orange for qualification and flash orange for the finals.

See full results from the 2026 ISSF World Cup in China at the ISSF website.

Learn more about USA Shooting at usashooting.org.