Double Trap shooter William Chetcuti improved his position in the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) world rankings by six places as the 2012 Olympic Games medal hopeful moved to second on the list published yesterday.

Chetcuti, 27, started the year at no.8 but his superb display at last week’s World Cup shoot in Arizona, United States, where he was runner-up with a remarkable score of 194, earned him enough points to leapfrog most of his rivals for a podium finish in London this summer.

The rankings are headed by Britain’s Peter Wilson, 26, whose ISSF ratings shot to 1,708 after winning the competition in Tucson with a record 198 points.

The previous best score in Double Trap belonged to China’s Hu Binyuan who smashed 196 clays in an international competi-tion in 2009.

Chetcuti’s rating stands at 1,413. The third slot in the list is occupied by Germany’s Andreas Loew (1,317) as former leader Jun Li, of China, slipped to fourth (1,225).

Young shooter Nathan Lee Xuereb’s reward for his brilliant fourth placing at the Arizona shoot was an impressive 11th position inthe provisional international rankings.

The upward trend for the 15-year-old Xuereb means an impressive leap of 61 places from his previous position in the ISSF list which includes the top 81 Double Trap competitors in the world.

The rankings are determined by the performance score of shooters in ISSF-supervised championships and competitions throughout the year.

These are awarded for the rank achieved (Category A) and result obtained (Category B). The performance score is achieved by combining the points of Category A and B.

Meanwhile, the next assignment for Chetcuti and Xuereb, both coached by Jimmy Bugeja, will be another ISSF World Cup shoot later on this month.

This competition will be staged at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, the same venue of the London Games shoot on August 2.