France’s Clément Bessaguet and Germany’s Doreen Vennekamp, respective men’s and women’s ISSF Athletes of the Year for 2023, received their awards in the Egyptian capital as part of the Opening Ceremony in Cairo for the first World Cup of the Olympic season.
ISSF President Luciano Rossi and General Hazem Hosny, Egyptian Shooting Federation President, presided over the opening event.
Esteemed delegates and guests present included Dr. Ashraf Sobhy, Minister of Youth and Sports, and Major General Mohamed Zamlout, Governor of the New Valley.
In an award revived by the ISSF Athletes Committee after a five-year gap, the 28-year-old from Gelnhausen earned most votes in the women’s section after a year in which she had equalled the 25m pistol world record of 40 in winning her first world title, as well as taking bronze in the European Games and silver at the Doha World Cup Final.
Bessaguet added a second 25m rapid fire pistol world silver in Baku to one he had secured at the previous year’s World Championships in Cairo.
The 32-year-old from Montpellier had a very successful season overall, finishing on the podium in four of the six World Cup events.
A suggested list of 18 male and 16 athletes was sent within voting cards to eligible members of the Athletes Committee, Coaches Committee and ISSF media representatives, who were asked to list their top five men and women.
“The athletes do their best every day and it is so pleasing for the ISSF to be recognising these amazing performers,” Cassio Rippel, chair of the Athletes Committee, told ISSF from Cairo.
“We used the old rules for these awards, but at our meeting here the other day we were looking at ways of changing the rules in order to reward more athletes next time round, as there are so many different disciplines in our sport.”
