"VAN" (Sports Desk - 05.12.2025) :: The best of the best this year are set to compete for the honour of becoming the season-ending champion, as 132 athletes arrive in Doha, Qatar, for the 2025 ISSF World Cup Final.
Hailing from 33 Member Federations, all participants will be pushing to win one of the 12 gold medals on the line across men's and women's rifle, pistol and shotgun events.
Athletes qualified through five routes to Doha: as the defending ISSF World Cup Final champion from 2024, as the highest-ranked non-qualifier on one of the four ISSF World Cup legs this season, from the ISSF 2025 World Cup rankings, by finishing in the top three of the ISSF World Championships, or through wildcard quotas given to the host nation, up to a maximum of two.
Each of the 12 finals have a maximum of 12 athletes, except for the men's skeet - due to the late withdrawal of Czechia's Jakub Tomecek due to illness.
China have the largest contingent in Doha with 24 athletes, while India will bring 15 team members. Hosts Qatar have 19 athletes entered, while the United States have 11. Six of those are in skeet competition.
Men's Rifle
The new men's 10m air rifle world champion Maximilian Dallinger was the surprise package coming out of Cairo, winning his first senior title against the odds. On the podium with him were the Olympic gold and silver medallists, Sheng Lihao of China and Victor Lindgren of Sweden.
For Lindgren, he was inches away from winning consecutive world titles before a difficult final series, which allowed the German to pip him to the gold. Sheng was the bronze medallist, but has been the most in-form this season between the three. He won the ISSF World Cup in Lima, as well as bronze and silver in the following legs in Munich and Ningbo.
The new world record holder Danilo Sollazzo will look to bounce back from a difficult campaign in Cairo and rediscover the form that took him to gold in Ningbo. Fellow World Cup winners Rudrankksh Patil of India and AIN athlete Ilia Marsov are also entered.
Marsov is one of the three major contenders set to compete in both the men's 10m air rifle and 50m rifle 3 positions. The others are Istvan Peni from Hungary and Jon-Hermann Hegg of Norway. Peni had a strong start in South America, winning medals in all four events he entered over two legs, including the gold in Buenos Aires over the longer distance. Hegg found more joy in the second half of the season, winning the 50m rifle 3 positions gold in Munich, as well as bronze in Ningbo. He would just miss the medals at the ISSF World Championship too.
The winner that day was China's Liu Yukun, the Olympic champion. Opting to start his international season in November, he took the gold ahead of India's Aishwary Tomar and French youngster Romain Aufrere.
But the top-ranked athlete in the event this year is Czechia's Jiri Privratsky, one of the most consistent rifle athletes in the world. Golds have eluded him everywhere except the ISSF World Cup where he now has seven individually, including two this year in Lima and Ningbo.
Women's Rifle
If results on the ISSF World Cup circuit are anything to go by, Wang Zifei is the one to beat in the women's 10m air rifle, after three consecutive victories from Buenos Aires to Munich. The fourth gold of the season would go to her teammate Peng Xinlu in Ningbo, a 16-year-old sensation who is already competing well against her older peers.
But the ISSF World Championship threw a spanner in the works when the Olympic champion Ban Hyo-jin of the Republic of Korea defeated Wang to the title, ending the Chinese star's unbeaten run. Ban herself has only just turned 18, but is the in-form athlete. Her only World Cup saw her finish seventh in Munich.
What will be interesting is the return of Huang Yuting, the 19-year-old who took Olympic silver and mixed team gold with Sheng Lihao at Paris 2024. Focusing on the Chinese Games this year, Huang's form is relatively unknown - qualifying as the defending ISSF World Cup Final champion. A third of the field are Chinese, with the fourth member being Han Jiayu.
Kwon Eun-ji, Ban's compatriot, has been consistent this year with two World Cup silvers to her name. Elavenil Valarivan of India took world bronze too, making her a contender.
Entered in both rifle events, Jeanette Hegg Duestad of Norway will favour the 50m rifle 3 positions. Newly crowned as world champion in the distance, Duestad lived up to expectations following World Cup wins in Munich and Ningbo, as well as silver in Lima.
Statistically, the woman to stop her is Rikke Ibsen of Denmark. Ibsen, in the past 12 months, has twice pipped Duestad in a Nordic one-two at last year's ISSF World Cup Final and then the European Championships. Duestad would defeat Ibsen in another final showdown in Ningbo in September.
Switzerland's Emely Jaeggi has emerged as one of the emerging teenagers in this event and a successor to her teammate and Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Nina Christen, who is also on the entry list. Jaeggi took world silver behind Duestad, shortly after her 17th birthday. The bronze medal went to Great Britain's Seonaid McIntosh, who pulled out a tremendous performance off just a few weeks of training to qualify. It had been her first event since last year's Olympic Games. Olympic silver medallist Sagen Maddalena of the United States and India's Sift Kaur Samra, World Cup winners in South America, are also entered.
Men's Pistol
Hu Kai made history as the first-ever athlete to win all four legs in an ISSF World Cup season and had a streak of five wins in a row coming into the World Championship. Against the odds, India's Samrat Rana ended that in Cairo, as the 20-year-old delivered a statement performance for the world title. Hu remains the favourite on paper, having won silver, but has shown signs of mortality.
Some top athletes line up beside them including the Olympic champion and defending World Cup Final Xie Yu, Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallist Felipe Wu from Brazil and Germany's Christian Reitz, more adept in the 25m rapid fire pistol, where he too has been an Olympic champion.
Those who finished runner-up to Hu on the World Cup circuit were AIN athlete Anton Aristarkhov, Wu, Valeriy Rakhimzhan of Kazakhstan and Hu's compatriot You Changjie. Before Rana's heroics, Rakhimzhan gave the Chinese athlete the biggest scare back in Munich.
Reitz's teammates Emanuel Mueller and Florian Peter have been carrying Germany's hopes in the 25m rapid fire pistol event, with the latter winning gold in Ningbo. There has been a strong rivalry with the French duo of Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Jean Quiquampoix and Clement Bessaguet, the new world champion.
Bessaguet stood on the podium with India's Anish and Ukraine's Maksym Horodynets, who qualified for Doha as a result. As the winner from last year, Li Yuehong will represent China alongside his younger teammate Su Lianbofan. India's Vijayveer Sidhu and Czechia's Matej Rampula are also on the list, having won World Cup legs in Buenos Aires and Lima.
Women's Pistol
After an understated start to the season, Yao Qianxun is looking like a serious contender in both the women's 10m air pistol and 25m pistol events.
The Chinese shooter won four ISSF World Cup medals - three in 10m and one in 25m - this season, with one silver and three bronzes. In both, she was overshadowed by dominant opponents. The first of these was Suruchi Singh of India in the 10m air pistol, having won the first three legs of the season. Her teammate Esha Singh would win the last one in Ningbo, but she opted to focus on the 25m event in Doha.
India's other contender is Manu Bhaker, who will be looking to recapture her form. She, like Yao, will compete in both distances. As will the Korean, Oh Ye-jin, the Olympic champion. A world medal would elude the youngster, but she won bronze in Ningbo in the 10m and two silvers in the 25m in the last two World Cup legs.
An all-rounder but only qualified in the 10m is France's Olympic silver medallist Camille Jedrzejewski, who took silver in Munich. She is also the defending ISSF World Cup Final champion. Yao's fellow world medallists Shing Ho Ching of Hong Kong and Qian Wei of China are also entered.
Singh's 10m dominance was matched by Sun Yujie's 25m dominance. She won the first three World Cup legs too, but her winning run came to an end in Cairo, finishing 19th in the 25m pistol. Despite this, she has to be considered a major contender alongside Yao.
Above them all has to be Republic of Korea's Yang Ji-in, who added world gold to her Olympic gold from last year. She denied Yao, who left Cairo with six golds and two silvers in all competitions, a double over 10m and 25m. Esha Singh was the bronze medallist behind them.
Men's Shotgun
Some of the most surprising results this year have came in men's trap, which has a field full of underdogs vying to strike again.
Some are more favoured on paper. You can look at the general consistency of Guatemala's Olympic medallist Jean Pierre Brol or the man who took the silver that day in Chateauroux, Qi Ying, the defending World Cup Final champion. You may also consider the overall form of Italian Mauro de Filippis, the number one in the World Cup rankings, or the overall world number one, William Hinton from the US.
But that doesn't even tell the whole story. You'd be missing the new world champion Josip Glasnovic of Croatia, the 2016 Olympic champion who took his first world gold this year in Athens at the age of 42. You would also miss the tremendous effort of Spain's Andres Garcia, who nearly became the first athlete to win junior and senior world titles in consecutive years. Even India's Zoravar Singh Sandhu, who won his first medal in 18 years and his first world medal at the age of 48 deserves a mention.
Even Sandhu's bronze may not be the biggest surprise of the year; Manuel Murcia of Spain's victory in Nicosia is worth considering, as is the return to form for the Italian great Giovanni Pellielo, the World Cup winner in Lonato.
In the men's skeet, few would bet against Vincent Hancock. The American returned in Lonato with a gold medal and held that momentum into the World Championship, winning his fifth world title to add to his four Olympic victories. Surprisingly, the only gold missing from his cabinet is the ISSF World Cup Final title. He has competed seven times and has finished with silver on six occasions.
His teammates Christian Elliott and Dustan Taylor will provide a strong challenge. Both won a leg in South America and Elliott is the world number one. Other notable contenders include last year's runner-up Gabriele Rossetti of Italy, world bronze medallist Emil Kjeldgaard and his Danish colleague Jesper Hansen, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist.
Women's Shotgun
Spain's Mar Molne, who just missed the Olympic medals a year ago, is one of the women's trap contenders following her World Cup silver in Lima and her first world title, in Athens. On the day, she defeated Italian Silvana Stanco - herself the Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallist - in one of the most memorable stories of the World Championship. It was also one of the best performances of Poland's Sandra Bernal, who sealed her place at the World Cup Final with the bronze medal.
Australians Penny Smith and Laetisha Scanlan were victorious on the ISSF World Cup circuit in Buenos Aires and Lonato respectively, as was AIN athlete Lada Denisova, who made it onto the podium twice, once topping it in Nicosia. Olympic medallist Alessandra Perilli of San Marino is the defending champion heading into Doha.
Qatar's best hopes of a medal sit with Ray Bassil, who changed her allegiance from Lebanon this season. A two-time World Cup gold medallist, her best World Cup Final result saw her win bronze in 2017.
The women's skeet is dominated by the Americans - primarily the world champion Samantha Simonton. She was dominant in the final in Athens, following on from her two silvers and her Lonato gold on the World Cup stage. She was part of the all-American podium in Lima which saw one of her heroes Kim Rhode take the gold, with Dania Vizzi - the winner in Buenos Aires - taking bronze. Over 12 podium spots in four legs, they occupied eight spots.
Only Arina Kuznetsova stopped the dominance. The AIN athlete took victory in Nicosia, following on from bronze in Argentina. The only other World Cup medallists this year were Chinese duo Che Yufei and Jiang Yiting, bronze winners in Nicosia and Lonato. World bronze medallist Victoria Larsson of Sweden is also entered.
Simonton heads in as the defending World Cup Final champion - a title she will be determined to defend.
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