Gabala, August 12, AZERTAC

Walton Eller (33) of the United States of America won the gold in the men's double trap at the World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan.

In the gold medal match, Eller beat Steven Scott (30) by 30 to 26 targets.

Scott, the silver medalist, gained an Olympic quota for his country, Great Britain.

The event's second ticket to Rio 2016 went to Germany's Michael Goldbrunner (29), who lost to Russia's Vasily Mosin (43) in the bronze medal match.

It took a long time before getting to the medal matches.

At the end of the semifinal, five athletes were tied in second place with 29 targets--India's Asab Mohd (27), China's Hu Binyuan (37), plus Eller, Goldbrunner, and Mosin.

Hu was the first to leave the shoot-off, taking sixth place after missing just one target in the semifinal's first 15 doubles.

Then, the shoot-off doubled up. Eller and Goldbrunner competed to enter the gold medal match; Mosin and Mohd, to enter the bronze medal match.

Mosin beat Mohd in the shoot-off (20-19), and Goldbrunner in the bronze medal match (30-29), securing the third spot.

Eller beat Goldbrunner (4-3) to join Scott in the gold medal match.

Scott, who had hit all of his 30 targets in the semifinal, then missed four and lost to Eller.

"I feel really good," says Eller. "It's been a while since I've been up on the top of the podium, so it's nice to be back."

"One thing when you shoot a 29 in a final [is that] you're not expecting a five-way shoot-off to get in the gold medal match."

"Hu Binyuan shot a 29 and came in sixth. I mean, that's gotta be a little tough to swallow."

Winning a gold for the first time in the last two years, Eller feels now more optimistic about the Olympics.

"Yeah," Eller says, "it [the gold] puts me in a great spot for Rio. Hopefully I can just keep doing what I'm doing."

"I knew I had the ability [to win a gold]. I've been shooting really great scores in the last two to three years. It's just [that] sometimes it's tough--you got a lot of great competitors out here. They train just as hard as we do."

"It's nice to be on top."