The third leg of the 2025 ISSF World Cup Shotgun is underway, with 350 athletes heading to Nicosia in Cyprus in a bid to win trap and skeet titles.
A total of 54 National Olympic Committees are expecting to compete over finals running from 7th to 11th of May at the Cyprus Olympic Shooting Range "Lakis Psimolophitis".
But it is an opportunity for new winners in the 2025 season, with the individual gold medallists opting to rest after back-to-back events in Buenos Aires and Lima. However, Yang Kun-Pi and Liu Wan-Yu of Chinese Taipei, mixed trap winners in Argentina, do return.
The United States were dominant in South America, winning all skeet gold medals, as well as the men's trap in Lima. The women's skeet has been a particularly strong event for them, with a 1-2 in Buenos Aires and a podium clean sweep in Lima. Of those medallists, only Samantha Simonton returns.
Simonton, the 2022 world bronze medallist and the 2024 ISSF World Cup gold medallists in Cairo, has won four medals on the World Cup circuit now and will be amongst the favourites in the women's skeet. AIN's Arina Kuznetsova, who took bronze in Buenos Aires, will return too. Lucie Anastassiou of France, a two-time World Cup winner who finished in the top 10 at the last two Olympic Games, will be another medal contender. Other World Cup medallists from the past include Greece's Emmanouela Katzouraki and Italian Chiara Di Marziantonio.
From the home country, Panagiota Andreou will be one of Cyprus' medal hopes, having won a World Cup medal in women's skeet previously.
Qi Ying (left) and Nathan Hales (centre) will compete in NicosiaAmerican expectation will lie with Adam McBee in the men's skeet, who will look to improve on his best finish of seventh in Lima. Italian Elia Sdruccioli took bronze in Buenos Aires for his second World Cup medal and will again be amongst the favourites, while Federico Gil from Argentina could be considered in with a chance too. Han Xu from China claimed his first ISSF World Cup medal with bronze in Lima and returns aiming for another. However, the biggest name in the field is Chinese Taipei's Lee Meng-Yuan, who won the Olympic bronze in Paris and is still seeking his first World Cup medal.
A stacked men's trap field is set for Nicosia, which features Olympic champion Nathan Hales from Great Britain and the man he beat to the gold, Qi Ying from China. Hales is also a world silver medallist and won his sole World Cup gold in Lonato in 2023. Qi has one World Cup to his name too, claiming gold in Changwon in 2022.
But Hales is not the only Olympic champion in Nicosia. Giovanni Cernogoraz of Croatia, the London 2012 gold medallist and 2023 world champion, is back after a recent bronze in Lima. He has one individual World Cup gold to his name so far. His compatriot and fellow veteran Anton Glasnovic has three World Cup golds. David Kostelecky is a third Olympic champion in the field, as part of a strong Czech team. The 49-year-old will be searching for his third World Cup gold. Britain's Matthew Coward-Holley, an Olympic bronze medallist, is also a contender.
In the women's trap, Spaniards Fatima Galvez and Mar Molne Magrina, who made the final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, will be hoping for more success in Cyprus. Both are two-time World Cup champions. Molne Magrina took silver in Peru. Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games champion and three-time Olympic medallist Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova from Slovakia has won eight World Cup titles too. San Marino's Alessandra Perilli, an Olympic medallist, is also entered.
Finals will run from 7th to 11th April, and all information about the Nicosia ISSF World Cup can be found here.