Shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's trap

The men's trap was a shooting sports event held as part of the Shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics programme. It was the sixth appearance of the event. The competition was held on 25 and 26 July 1952 at the shooting ranges in Helsinki. 40 shooters from 22 nations competed.[1] Each nation could have up to 2 shooters.[2] The event was won by George Genereux of Canada, the nation's first victory (and first medal) in the event since 1908. Sweden, which had never before medaled in the men's trap, took two medals this Games, with Knut Holmqvist earning silver and Hans Liljedahl bronze.

Men's trap
at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Gold medalist George Genereux during the competition
VenueHelsinki, Finland
Dates25–26 July
Competitors40 from 22 nations
Winning score192 OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) George Genereux  Canada
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Knut Holmqvist  Sweden
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Hans Liljedahl  Sweden
← 1924
1956 →

Background

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This was the sixth appearance of what had been standardised as the men's ISSF Olympic trap event. The event was held at every Summer Olympics from 1896 to 1924 (except 1904, when no shooting events were held) and from 1952 to 2016. As with most shooting events, it was nominally open to women from 1968 to 1980; the trap remained open to women through 1992. Very few women participated these years. The event returned to being men-only for 1996, though the new double trap had separate events for men and women that year. In 2000, a separate women's event was added and it has been contested at every Games since. There was also a men's team trap event held four times from 1908 to 1924.[3][4]

Unsurprisingly, none of the shooters from the 1924 Games (the last edition of the trap) returned. The reigning World Champion from the 1952 ISSF World Shooting Championships, Argentina's Pablo Grossi, did not compete in Helsinki; the silver and bronze medalists (17-year-old George Genereux of Canada and Knut Holmqvist of Sweden, respectively) did.[5]

Argentina, Bulgaria, Egypt, Monaco, Poland, Puerto Rico, Soviet Union, and Switzerland each made their debut in the event. Great Britain made its sixth appearance, the only nation to have competed at each edition of the event to that point.

Competition format

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The trap competitions prior to World War II had featured 100 target competitions, with winners reaching scores of 98. When trap returned to the Olympics in these Games, it used 200 targets in two courses of 100. Each course consisted of 4 series of 25 targets.[6][5]

Records

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Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record
Olympic record New format

George Genereux set the initial Olympic record for the 200-shot event with 192 points.

Schedule

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Date Time Round
Friday, 25 July 1952 9:00 Course 1
Saturday, 26 July 1952 9:00 Course 2

Results

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The end of the first day had Liljedahl and Aasnæs leading at 96, followed closely by Genereux, Čapek, and Holmqvist at 95. Aasnæs dropped early in the second course. Liljedahl still held the 1-point lead over Genereux and Holmqvist after 150 shots, but Genereux took the lead with a perfect 25-hit series from targets to 151 to 175 while Liljedahl hit only 21. Holmqvist hit 24 during that run, falling behind Genereux by 1 but ahead of Liljedahl by 2. Genereux's 24 out of the last 25 ensured that Liljedahl could not catch him; Holmqvist needed to be perfect to move back up to tied with the Canadian, but only equaled Genereux's 24 in the final 25 shots.[5][2][6]

Rank Shooter Nation Total
  George Genereux   Canada 192
  Knut Holmqvist   Sweden 191
  Hans Liljedahl   Sweden 190
4 František Čapek   Czechoslovakia 188
5 Konrad Huber   Finland 188
6 Ioannis Koutsis   Greece 187
7 Galliano Rossini   Italy 187
8 Italo Bellini   Italy 186
9 Józef Kiszkurno   Poland 185
10 Ivan Isayev   Soviet Union 185
11 Hans Aasnæs   Norway 185
12 Seifollah Ghaleb   Egypt 184
13 Roy Cole   Canada 184
14 Enoch Jenkins   Great Britain 183
15 Yury Nikandrov   Soviet Union 183
16 Ivan Ivanov   Bulgaria 182
17 Youssef Fares   Egypt 181
18 André Taupin   France 181
19 Igor Treybal   Czechoslovakia 181
20 Olgierd Darżynkiewicz   Poland 181
21 Albert Fichefet   Belgium 178
22 Laszlo Szapáry   Austria 178
23 Kurt Schöbel   Germany 175
24 Panagiotis Linardakis   Greece 175
25 Juan de Giacomo   Argentina 175
26 Claude Lagarde   France 173
27 Rafael de Juan   Spain 173
28 Gaston Van Roy   Belgium 169
29 Sven-Erik Rosenlew   Finland 168
30 Khristo Shopov   Bulgaria 168
31 Allan Christensen   Denmark 165
32 Georges Robini   Monaco 165
33 Antonio Vega   Spain 164
34 Louis Cavalli   Switzerland 159
35 Charles Lucas   Great Britain 159
36 Pierre-André Flückiger   Switzerland 159
37 Svein Helling   Norway 148
38 Marcel Rué   Monaco 146
39 José Ángel Galiñanes   Puerto Rico 117
40 Fulvio Rocchi   Argentina 109

References

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  1. ^ "Shooting at the 1952 Helsinki Summer Games: Men's Trap". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
  2. ^ a b Official Report, p. 454.
  3. ^ "Shooting". Olympedia. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  4. ^ "Historical Results". issf-sports.org. International Shooting Sport Federation. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  5. ^ a b c "Trap, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  6. ^ a b Official Report, p. 468.