Gabriele Rossetti won gold in skeet in Almaty and set a world record in the final
Italian shooter Gabriele Rossetti won the title in men's skeet at the ISSF World Cup in Almaty, Kazakhstan, with a result that gave the event broader significance than just another victory in the season. In the final held on May 5, 2026, he hit 35 of 36 targets and thereby set a new world record for the final in this discipline. The International Shooting Sport Federation stated that Rossetti showed exceptional precision and stability during the concluding performance, and the official results confirm that he won gold with the WR designation, that is, a world record.
The competition in Almaty is part of the ISSF World Cup Shotgun series, and the Kazakh stage is being held from May 2 to 11, 2026. It is one of the most important international appearances in the Olympic flying-target disciplines this season, with a program that includes skeet and trap. Rossetti's result stands out especially because it was achieved in the final, in a format in which pressure grows from series to series, and a mistake in the closing stages can directly decide the medals. In such an environment, the 31-year-old Italian managed to maintain an almost perfect rhythm and confirm his status as one of the most successful skeet shooters of his generation.
A final with one miss and a record performance
The men's skeet final began at 17:00 local time in Almaty and concluded the first day of final competitions at this World Cup stop. Rossetti held the top of the standings or remained immediately in touch from the beginning, and he made the crucial difference in the part of the final in which he passed through the most demanding series almost without error. According to the official standings, he finished with 35 hits, while German representative Sven Korte won silver with 34 hits. Bronze went to Japanese shooter Shotaro Toguchi, who achieved 30 hits in the final.
Toguchi's medal also had a historical dimension because the ISSF emphasized that it was Japan's first medal in men's skeet at the World Cup. Fourth place was taken by Dane Emil Kjeldgaard Petersen with 24 hits, and behind him finished Finn Eetu Kallioinen and Ukrainian Ivan Loik, both with 21 hits. Also in the final line-up were Danish Olympian Jesper Hansen and Peruvian Nicolas Pacheco Espinosa, who finished the competition in seventh and eighth place.
Rossetti's result of 35/36 in practice means that he missed only one target in the final. In skeet, a series of single and double targets launched from two houses on opposite sides of the shooting range is shot at, and the sport requires from the shooter a quick reaction, a stable stance, precise reading of the trajectory and the ability to repeat the same technical pattern under ever-increasing pressure. That is precisely why a record in the final measures not only the technical quality of one performance, but also mental resilience in a situation in which medals are decided in front of spectators, cameras and rivals who are waiting for every mistake.
The qualifications announced the fight for gold
Rossetti did not reach gold through a sudden turnaround, but had already shown a high level in the qualifications. The official ISSF results state that in five qualification series he hit 124 of 125 targets, with a sequence of 25, 25, 24, 25 and 25. Emil Kjeldgaard Petersen and Eetu Kallioinen had the same total result, but the order before the final was determined according to additional criteria, so Rossetti entered the final as second. Such a qualification performance was a clear signal that he was in top competitive rhythm.
The qualifications were extremely tight. Hansen entered the final with 123 hits, Pacheco Espinosa and Loik with 122, Korte also with 122, and Toguchi with 121. This shows that the difference between fighting for a medal and a place outside the final was very small. In such a layout, one target during the qualifications can mean a completely different competitive day, and Rossetti's ability to raise the level further in the final after qualification 124/125 was crucial for the record outcome.
The Italian national team had more representatives in men's skeet in Almaty. Erik Pittini, who competed outside the ranking for the final and for points under a special status, achieved a very high 123/125. Domenico Simeone finished the qualifications in 52nd place with 115 hits, while Marco Sablone was 59th with 114. These results additionally place Rossetti's performance in context: a World Cup final is not only a question of an elite average, but a combination of form, concentration and the ability to deliver the strongest result precisely at the moment of decision.
A comeback after a weaker start to the season
The victory in Kazakhstan also has an important seasonal dimension for Rossetti. Italian media reported his statement that the start of the year was not as he had wanted, because at the first World Cup stop in Tangier he finished only 28th. Ahead of his appearance in Almaty, according to the same statement, he devoted the last month to fixing elements that had not been working and arrived at the competition convinced that he was technically in good condition. The result in the final showed that this work had an immediate effect.
Such a turnaround is important in a sport in which form is often measured through small differences, and shooters at the highest level perform most technical elements automatically. When rhythm is disrupted, the problem does not have to be large in a visible sense, but it can be enough to lose several targets through the qualifications. Rossetti's response was the strongest possible: entering the final with almost perfect qualifications, winning gold and a result entered as a new world record for the final.
In the closing stage, it was especially important that Korte did not allow an easy victory. The German, with 34 hits, remained only one hit behind Rossetti, so the pressure remained until the very end. Such a scenario often brings the most tension in skeet because the leading shooter has no room to relax. Rossetti nevertheless maintained the level of performance and finished the competition with a score that will remain a reference point for future finals.
The double Olympic champion confirms continuity
Rossetti has long been a name of great weight in international shooting. At the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 he won gold in individual skeet, and at the Games in Paris in 2024, together with Diana Bacosi, he won gold in mixed team skeet. That pair defeated the American combination Vincent Hancock – Austen Jewell Smith in the final in Châteauroux with a result of 45-44, in the first Olympic edition of that discipline. With that, Rossetti became an athlete with Olympic titles in the individual and mixed team formats of skeet.
The ISSF athlete database states that Rossetti was born on March 7, 1995, that he comes from Ponte Buggianese, that he competes for Italy and that he is a member of the Polizia di Stato sports system. The same database states that he began training in shooting in 2002 and competing in 2008. His profile also records the world record in men's skeet with the date May 5, 2026, which further confirms the official status of the result from Almaty.
His career is also interesting because of continuity through different phases of sporting development. As a very young shooter, he won Olympic gold in Rio, then through world and European competitions he retained a place among the leading names of the discipline, and after Paris 2024 he again showed that he can respond to the greatest competitive demands. Gold in Almaty is therefore not an isolated episode, but the continuation of a career in which experience, technical quality and the ability to adapt to the competition format are combined.
Italian skeet had a successful day in the women's competition as well
On the same day, Italian skeet achieved another valuable result. Martina Bartolomei won bronze in women's skeet, after hitting 119 of 125 targets in the qualifications, which Italian sources described as her best qualification result in that competitive context. In the final, she finished with 27 hits, behind Kazakh Assem Orynbay, who won gold with 33 hits and an equalled world record, and Chinese representative Jiang Yiting, silver medallist with 30 hits.
After her performance, Bartolomei emphasized that this was her first World Cup medal and that it meant especially much to her after a period of disappointment following the Olympic experience in Paris 2024. Her result additionally highlighted a good Italian day in Almaty: one gold with a world record in men's skeet and one bronze in women's skeet. For a national team that traditionally has a strong position in the flying-target disciplines, such a performance confirms the breadth and competitiveness of the squad.
The director of the Italian skeet national team Luigi Agostino Lodde praised Rossetti's work and Bartolomei's calmness during the competition. According to statements reported by Italian media, he emphasized for Rossetti that daily work stood behind the result, while for Bartolomei he highlighted a concentrated and balanced performance from beginning to end. Such reactions show that the result in Almaty is perceived in the Italian camp not only as a medal success, but also as confirmation of preparation and the direction of work ahead of the continuation of the season.
Why the record from Almaty is important for the continuation of the season
The ISSF World Cup is not an Olympic competition, but in sports such as shooting it carries great weight because it gathers the elite and often shows who is able to maintain form between major championships. Almaty is one of the key stops for flying-target disciplines in the 2026 calendar, and a result like Rossetti's sends a clear message to rivals. After a weaker performance in Tangier, the Italian shooter returned not only to the podium, but moved the final standard to a new boundary.
For the skeet discipline itself, the final record has special value because the final format differs from the long qualifications. The qualifications measure stability through 125 targets, while the final creates elimination pressure and emphasizes the ability to keep the rhythm in short, intense series. Rossetti was almost perfect in both parts of the competition: 124/125 in the qualifications and 35/36 in the final. Such a combination makes his performance one of the most striking results of the beginning of the 2026 international shotgun season.
The competition in Almaty continues until May 11, with the remaining program in trap and team formats. But already after the first day of finals it is clear that the World Cup edition in Kazakhstan will be remembered for Gabriele Rossetti's record performance. In a sport in which boundaries are often moved by one target, that one miss more or less can mean the difference between a good result and a historical record. Rossetti hit enough in Almaty for his victory to move beyond the framework of a regular competition report and enter the official statistics of the discipline.
Sources:
- ISSF – official report on the men's skeet final and Gabriele Rossetti's world record (link)
- ISSF – official results of the men's skeet final at the 2026 World Cup in Almaty (link)
- ISSF – official results of the men's skeet qualifications in Almaty 2026 (link)
- ISSF – athlete profile of Gabriele Rossetti and record evidence (link)
- Olympics.com – results of the mixed team skeet final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (link)
- Olympics.com – footage and official data on the men's skeet final at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (link)
- Quotidiano Sportivo – statements after the competition and broader overview of Italian results in Almaty (link)