2013 WC #4 Granada – Women

Siling Yi is back at the top of the podium! After a fantastic final with a new WRF (finals world record) and a qualification score close to the previous WR. That record belongs now to Liuxi Wu after a great score of 421.0 which equals to an average of 10.53 p! Scores were in general really high in the women’s event, to reach the final you had to shoot 417.9 p, the highest score so far in a world cup. Even to be within the top-20 you had to score at least 415.1 p which would have almost got you a final spot in both Fort Benning and Cangwon (9th place).

2013 WC #4 Granada – Men

We have now reached the fourth and final regular world cup of the season, Granada. It is also the testing round for next year’s world championship in the same city. The competition opened yesterday with trap to move on to air rifle, men’s event, today and women’s tomorrow. There was a good turn-up with 90 starting athletes and another 13 shooters in the MQS section. Compared to last time in Munich, scores were lower, around 4 p in average. Leader after the qualification round was Tao Wang after scoring 627.6

2013 WC #3 Munich – Women

The dominance from China continues. Out of a total of five competitor, four would have ended up in the final if MQS scores were allowed. But since that isn’t the case, two Chinese women moved on after qualifying in first and second place. Overall, scores were less than expected and far behind that of the men’s competition. Both final scores and qualification scores left more to desire. Instead of high scores we saw a tight competition. To enter the final you needed at least 416.0 p (ranging up to 418.9 p and even a 421.6 in the MQS section of the WC) which is an average of only 10.4.

2013 WC #3 Munich – Men

As we reach the third competition, we’ve seen 2 different champions and a many new faces in the final. Some great scores but at least I am still waiting for that competition with several shooters fighting for the win. As we move to Munich, a classically high-end competition where we every year see a large number of participants and high scores. This year we have the addition of having the clothing rules in full effect after the initiation period is finished. Interesting to see whether this will affect the competition in any way.

2013 WC #2 Fort Benning– Women

The women’s competition concludes the AR portion of the WC. Once again, we see a smaller number of participants, only 44 finishers after one disqualification. Interesting to see is the number of high scores coming out of China. All three participating in the competition moved on to the final. On top of this there were two more in the MQS portion of the WC, both scoring well enough to have been in the final in case they’ve had a chance. Yue Zhang even scored above the current world record!

2013 WC #2 Fort Benning– Men

A month after Changwon, we reach the second World Cup of the season; Fort Benning.

Interesting to see this time is the number of participants were quite low (only 47 came to start) but scores were up slightly compared with the previous competition. We saw a new World Record by the veteran Peter Sidi of 631.9 p, 0.7 ahead of Niccolo Campriani’s previous record. We also saw a new Junior World Record set by Haoran Yang, a new name on the scene. A 17 year old who competed in his first World Cup and qualified in second place with the WR of 627.5 and finished with the victory!

2013 WC #1 Changwon – Women

The women’s competition has now finished and was, not surprisingly, dominated by Asian shooters. Half of top 20 came from Asia and of those, three made it to the final. Scores were good in the top but dropped off relatively fast. Going into the final, a score of 415.2 p was required, which is an average of 10.38 p over all 40 shots. The leader came in with 419.7 (10.49), almost two points ahead of the second finalist. Opposite of the men’s competition, we find some good full ring scores this time: from 400 down to 396 with the majority at 399 p.

2013 WC #1 Changwon – Men

The WC season has started! The first stop is Changwon, Korea where men competed in their first event, air rifle, today. Women are to follow tomorrow so stay tuned for that.

This is the first time where an international competition (unless you count the European Championships a month ago) adopts the new finals rules. Interesting to see whether my own expectations are met (think scores will be around 628-29 for the leader and 625 to go into the final). It is early in the season so most shooters are not at their best just yet and with the change in formats, unfamiliar with how to react in competitions.

2013 WC Season

The start of this year’s World Cup season is closing in. The first competition will kick off next month with three more following and finish with the Final in November. With the Olympics just last summer and the World Championship coming up next year in Spain, this is an in between season. There are no quotas to fight for or teams to fill before the next year’s big competition, but hopefully it won’t mean less exciting competitions. Instead we have a season with many changes coming.

World Cup Final in Bangkok

The last international competition of the season has just finished. We have seen some tight competitions earlier this year with a few new names to remember for the future. Traditionally the WC final hasn’t been that tight due to a limited number of participants and this one was no different. Results were mixed with some really good and some more mediocre.

World Cup Final Bangkok 2012 – Participants

Who are participating in this year’s Final and what kind of scores have they produced since last year in Wroclaw, Poland?

This is a short post where I’ll just let the numbers speak for themselves:

Updated: The Possible Link Between WC Results and Olympic Results

This short post marks the end for my Olympic coverage for this time. The first post went through whether a link exists and how strong it would be. The result was that if a link does exists, it’s weak. The data set was/is to small and when only changing something small, like removing a data point, it affects everything. So when correlation between scores and ranking results went down (previous post) even when adding London to the data, my hopes to see an increased link here also went down.