Raffaele Talamo, a bronze that is worth gold

The Para-Trap World Cup ended with a bronze medal for Italy’s Technical Director Benedetto Barberini.

Catching it, in the PT1 classification, the one reserved for wheelchair fencers, was Rome’s Raffaele Talamo, who switched to functional classification precisely at this competition. He entered the finals with dorsal number 4 thanks to a score of 99/100 +1 obtained in the qualifiers, and earned the bronze medal with 28/40.

Winning the gold was Mohammed Alhebsi (UAE), who despite a two-zero penalty due to being late in showing up for the finals, prevailed over Czech Martin Bartos (CZE) in the tiebreaker for the top step of the podium, which he won with 36/50 +1 to 36/50 +2. Out of the final Gianluigi Dessì of Gonnesa (SU), seventh overall with 93/100.

In the PT2 ranking, reserved for athletes with lower limb disabilities, the winners were Slovak Marinov, first with 44/50 (equaled the World Record, ed.). Czech Lidinsky, second with 40/50, and Czech Kolar, third with 30/40. Stopping at the foot of the podium was our own Massimo Lanza from Rometta (ME) with 110/125 in qualifying and 24/35 in the final.

In the PT3 ranking, reserved for athletes with upper limb disabilities, our Antonio Dimasi from Cucciago (CO), after qualifying as third to the final with 103/125 +1, had to settle for fifth place with 18/30. Not bad, considering the fact that this was his team debut. On the podium were Buhaleeba (UAE), first with 42/50, Nothum (LUX) with 37/50, and Tomek (CZE) with 26/40.