2011 Round-up: Shooting
The year 2011 was not a World Championship year like 2010, so the Shooting Global Cup has been based on the performance in the ISSF Shooting World Cup.
The competition takes place in four events plus a W. C. Finals event, split in two separate groups of shooting contests, the Air Pistol plus Rifle contest and the Shotgun. Thus the Finals took place in two distinct locations: Al Ain in the UAE for the shotgun events, and Wroclaw (Poland) for the Air Pistol and Rifle ones.
The Global Cup awarded a total of 1.170 points to 36 different nations, as opposed to 3.510 points to 48 nations last year.
For all this richness in events and countries, the Global Cup final standings for 2011…look exactly like in 2010! The Top five countries in ranking order are China, Italy, Russia, Germany and the USA, the same as in 2010 when, curiously, all of them swapped places, the title going to Russia over China.
These are the major shooting powers, and the history of World Cup medals since its inception in 1986 confirms it: China leads with 575 medals (230 gold), followed by the USA (454 medals), Italy (351 medals), Germany (331 medals) and Russia (381 medals but fewer golds than Germany).
For the sake of historical accuracy, we note that the former Soviet Union took 250 medals in the six years 1986-1991. You can do your own adding up.
Behind the five big guns, there’s another tale of continuity: the next five countries in the ranking, Serbia, Norway, Ukraine, Czech Republic, France, were the same in 2010 with the exception of the Ukraine, whose place was taken by South Korea.
Are armed Men more dangerous than Women? They are in the case of Russia, whose boys led Italy, China the USA and, ominously, Norway. As for the Ladies, China took the title leading Germany and Italy.
The strong presence of Norway led us to think in terms of points per capita (or the potential risk factor…). The Shooting Per Capita Cup has been won by ….you’ll never guess: Cyprus, who needs only 66.117 inhabitants per point. Behind them, this time you’ll probably guess: even more ominously, Norway, with 108.682 heads per point, followed by Slovakia, Malta, Serbia, UAE, Georgia, Czech Republic, Mongolia and Croatia in 10th place.
As before, we leave you to figure out how good at shooting ex-Soviet Union countries and satellites are.
