SHOOTING: Olympic and Commonwealth Games medallist Warren Potent (Currans Hill, NSW) has won his career’s first World Championship title, on the way to securing Australia’s first quota place for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
The 52-year-old New South Welshman has finally secured the elusive World Championship title, a victory made even sweeter on the back of a Commonwealth Games title and a World Cup silver medal earlier this season.
Potent’s resilience shone through, as he comfortably cleared the elimination round, along with fellow Aussie Thomas Versace (Wandoan, QLD).
Confidently displaying his depth of experience, Potent charged ahead of the others in the Qualification Round, including Olympic multi-medallists Matthew Emmons (USA) and Niccolo Campriani (Italy). Versace finished his campaign on a qualifying score of 621.4.
In the eight-person final, Potent rose quickly to lead the field, and secured his position in the match with a steady 10.5 average.
ISSF Live TV guest commentator Emmons was quick to comment on Potent’s strong position.
“It is a major accomplishment to get into the World Championship final. There are close to 150 people trying to qualify, making it harder to win than the Olympic Games,” Emmons said.
Potent’s career has included an Olympic bronze medal (Beijing 2008), ten World Cup medals, three World Cup Final medals, five Oceania Championship medals and a recent commonwealth Games title from the Glasgow 2014 Games.
Shooting Australia spoke with a jubilant Potent just after his victory.
“I felt relaxed and controlled going into the final. I just tried to focus on getting a good shot away each time,” Potent said.
“I did start a little nervously, but once I was in front, I was determined to stay there and just kept to my routine. It hasn't really sunk in yet that I am the world champion.”
And what a champion effort it was by one of the nicest sportsmen in our country.
Shooting Australia CEO Damien Marangon said that Potent showed unbelievable poise through the final.
“This was a performance right off the top shelf. Warren has had an outstanding year and deserves to be the world champion to add to his Commonwealth Games title from Glasgow.
“This shows that Australian shooters are capable of mixing it with the rest of the world and we come to events like this to win, not just to participate. It shows we can and will produce world champions.
“Warren’s win also secures the first quota place for Australia on our journey to the Rio Olympics,” Marangon added with satisfaction.
A clearly excited National High Performance Rifle Coach Petr Kurka said that the result was great not just for Warren, but for the sport of shooting in Australia.
“Warren was ready this season. He had a great year and was ready for this World Championship. We built everything on his confidence. Technically he is perfect and he showed that today.
“Warren’s Commonwealth Games win helped him to be more confident here. His confidence was written all over his face this morning. He performed excellently in the final, is always consistent and proved this again in the final.
“Warren is like a bulldozer, he just keeps moving forward and takes everything in his stride. Today was definitely his day!” Kurka said.
The top-5 finalists were awarded an Olympic quota. Following Potent, the 2013 ISSF World Cup Final Bronze medallist Daniel Brodmeier, 27, from Germany, won the Silver medal with 208.6 points. Bronze went to Belarus Yury Shcherbatsevich, 30, with 188.0 points. Sergey Kamenskiy, 26, of the Russian Federation, did not make it to the podium. He ended up in fourth place with 167.0 points after setting a new world record of 632.3 points during the qualifications.
Earlier in the Championships 17-year-old Lilydale High School student Jack Wallace (Yering, VIC) won the silver medal for Australia in the Junior Men’s Trap event.
Wallace stormed through the qualification rounds spread over three days, recording the second highest score of 121/125 targets, and equalling the scores shot by experienced high profile Trap shooters Adam Vella (Keilor, VIC) and Michael Diamond (Fingal Bay, NSW), earlier in the day.
It is encouraging to see such great young talent coming through the junior program
Shooting Australia and AOC
