European shooters claimed all 10 Rio 2016 Olympic Games spots on offer as the Al Ain stage of the ISSF Shotgun World Cup came to end on Saturday (28 March) in the United Arab Emirates. Italy grabbed four places, while the Czech Republic, Croatia, Russia, Denmark, Cyprus and San Marino all earned one berth each, as said by ISSF.

The places will be allocated to the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of the winning athletes. The NOCs will then decide, along with their national shooting federations, if they will take up their quota and which athletes to send to the Games. Each country can have up to two representatives in each event at the Rio 2016 Games.

In the trap events, Italy’s Silvana Stanco won gold ahead of Alessandra Perilli of San Marino in the women’s competition, both of them earning paces in Rio. In the men’s event, David Kostelecky of the Czech Republic, the Beijing 2008 champion, finished first ahead of Croatia’s Josip Glasnovic.

“Winning the Olympic quota was the goal to achieve here. It feels great,” said Kostelecky. “I am 40 and I had never won an ISSF World Cup stage. I thought I was never going to achieve one. It will be a nice story to tell my sons.”

In the double trap, a male-only event, Russia’s Vasily Mosin, bronze medallist at the London 2012 Games, took gold ahead of Italy’s Marco Innocenti, both earning places at Rio 2016 for their nations.

“The first step to Rio 2016 is done,” said 42-year-old Mosin. “I started preparing for this season in December. I was a bit unlucky at the first World Cup Stage, in Acapulco. Al Ain turned in my favor.”

Top of the shots: the Italian women clean sweeped the skeet medals (Photo: ISSF/Nicolo Zangirolami)

Italian women dominated the podium in the skeet event, with Diana Bacosi, Chiara Cainero and Katiuscia Spada completing a 1-2-3 and taking both Olympic slots. France’s Anthony Terras won the men’s skeet ahead of Denmark’s Jasper Hansen and Cypriot Andreas Chasikos, but as Terras has already won a Rio 2016 at the 2014 world championships, the second and third placed shooters grabbed the slots.

“Our girls did a great job today,” said Italy coach and 2004 men’s skeet Olympic champion Andrea Benelli. “Gaining three medals and two Olympic quotas in a single match is an extraordinary achievement which probably has no parallels in the history of our sport.”

Of the 390 shooting places available at Rio 2016, 95 have now been won. In addition to the 10 won in the last stage of the Shotgun World Cup, in Acapulco, 75 were confirmed last year: 64 at the world championships and 11 at the Americas Shooting Championships.

Another 250 places Rio 2016 places will be allocated via a further 12 competitions this year. Of the remaining slots, 12 will be determined in 2016, nine are allocated to host country Brazil and 24 will be distributed through invitations.

Qualification for the Olympic and Paralympic Games is an ongoing process and final entries will only be officially confirmed in July 2016 (for the Olympic Games) and August 2016 (for the Paralympic Games). Entries are recommended by national federations or sport organisations to their respective National Olympic Committees or National Paralympic Committees, who decide on final selections.