ISSF World Cup opens in Baku

/By Azernews/

By Amina Nazarli

The 2016 ISSF World Cup in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun events was officially opened in Baku on June 21.

Azerbaijani Youth and Sports Minister Azad Rahimov, ISSF Vice-President Vladimir Lisin, Vice-President of the Shooting Federation of Azerbaijan Hafiz Jafarov attended the event.

Rahimov, addressing the ceremony, spoke of the development of sports in Azerbaijan, reminding that the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe was held in Baku few days ago.

Lisin and Jafarov, in turn, highlighted the Azerbaijani government’s attention to sports, and wished the athletes success.

Some 640 athletes from 80 countries arrived in Azerbaijan to compete in the sixth and last world cup stage of the season, which is held at the 2015 European Games shooting venue from June 20-29.

The first medals of the stage will be assigned on June 22 at the women’s Trap Final, scheduled to be conducted at 17.30 (local time). The competition will continue the following day with the women’s 10m Air Pistol final at 11.00, and the men’s 10m Air Rifle final at 13.00 and the men’s Trap final at 15.00.

The tournament is the last chance for the best shooters of the world to test their skills on a world-scale event, on their road to Rio 2016. With less than 50 days to go to the Games, the ISSF World Cup in Baku is indeed the largest international shooting competition ahead of the Olympics, and represents a great occasion to prepare for the most important event of the year.

Last year the event brought together 2,000 best shooters from 100 countries.

The first qualified shooting range in the country was established in 1920, on Azerbaijan’s Nargin Island. At the time, the national athletes participated in a host of competitions, becoming champions of the European and world champions several times over.

Irada Ashumova won a bronze medal at XXVIII Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. In addition, she came in 2nd place in the small caliber pistol event at the 1998 World Championships in Barcelona and again in 2002 in Lahti, Finland.