With his third ISSF World Cup gold medal in a row (10th overall), the only thing hotter than Vincent Hancock’s current win streak is his shotgun barrel. This third win came at Siggiewi, Malta, and was by far the two-time Olympic champion’s hardest fought victory of the year.
To start, the weather was far from ideal. In Hancock’s own words:
“We had a lot of weather changes, sunlight was perfect, Malta is a beautiful country, but the wind was definitely a factor in the last few days. Today it kind of settled down a little bit, the targets were more consistent and we saw a lot of high scores today.”
The final, however, presented its own challenges. According to Hancock, “we all missed quite a few targets, there was a little bit of a glare because of the sun getting so low behind the high house.”
This slump, in fact, caused Hancock to drop down from first into second place, after missing targets 39 and 40 at Station Five. Hancock put on a clinic for the final third of the competition however, shattering 20 straight clays in a row, in a performance which edged him back into first (aided by a few mistakes from his closest competitor), with a score of 56/60.
For more on the ISSF Siggiewi World Cup, visit: www.issf-sports.org
