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Aussie shooters take home a gold

Aussie shooters take home a gold

The Australian Olympic shooting team will return from Rio with a gold medal after finishing the shooting events in seventh place. SSAA Victoria member and Olympic Games debutant Catherine Skinner won the gold for the Shooting Trap Women’s event on Sunday, August 7.

The 26-year-old – who grew up in Mansfield in the State’s north-east – made it through to the Medal Match after a nail-biting shoot-off against Canada’s Cynthia Meyer in the semis.

Catherine was off to a slow start in the Medal Match. She missed her first and fourth targets, while New Zealander Natalie Rooney smashed her first five. But the tide turned and Catherine missed just one of the last 11 shots to Natalie’s four missed targets. The Aussie finished 12-11 to take out Australia’s third gold medal for the Rio Olympic Games.

It was the first ever major international competition win for Catherine and launched her to instant stardom back home. Fellow Aussie Laetisha Scanlan qualified in top position for the same event but finished the semi-finals in fifth place and failed to qualify for the Medal Match.

The last of the shooting events was held at the weekend, with Italy finishing in top spot. Italy earned seven medals overall for shooting – four gold and three silver. Finishing in second place was Germany with three gold and one silver, followed by China with two silver and four bronze medals.

The Australian team comprised the youngest shooting competitor at the Rio Olympic Games. At just 16 Aislin Jones competed in the Shooting Skeet Women’s event. She finished 17th in the qualifying round with a score of 63.

Another one to watch was SSAA Victoria member Mitchell Iles, who was nominated for the Shooting Trap Men’s event on July 4 after lengthy appeals and arbitration against Shooting Australia. The 17-year-old went into the games ranked number one in Australia for the trap event. Mitchell finished the qualifying round in 26th place with a score of 110. The top score in the qualifying round was 122. Fellow Aussie Adam Vella finished the qualifying round for the same event in 12th place with a score of 115. The first six proceeded to the finals.

Olympic bronze medallist and 2014 World Champion Warren Potent made his fifth straight appearance at an Olympic Games. The 54-year-old, who was the third oldest in the Australian Olympic team, competed in the 50m Rifle Prone Shooting event alongside fellow Aussie Dane Sampson. Warren finished the qualifying round in 35th place, while Dane finished in 31st.

In the Double Trap Men’s event, James Willett finished in fifth place in the semi-finals with a score of 26. He just failed to qualify for the finals.

In international shooting news, USA Women’s Skeet bronze medallist Kimberly Rhode made sporting history on Friday, August 12. The 37-year-old became the first woman ever and second athlete overall to win a medal in six consecutive Olympic Games. The six-time Olympian first competed at 17 in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. She now has three gold medals, one silver and two bronze.

Rio Olympic Games 2016 shooting results

Saturday, August 6 10m Air Rifle Women’s Finals:

  1. USA Virginia Thrasher
  2. CHINA Li Du
  3. CHINA Siling Yi

Saturday, August 6 10m Air Pistol Men’s Finals:

  1. VIETNAM Xuan Vinh Hoang
  2. BRAZIL Felipe Almeida Wu
  3. CHINA Wei Pang

Sunday, August 6 10m Air Pistol Women’s Finals:

  1. CHINA Mengxue Zhang
  2. RUSSIA Vitalina Batsarashkina
  3. GERMANY Anna Korakaki

Sunday, August 7 Trap Women’s Gold Medal Match:

  1. AUSTRALIA Catherine Skinner
  2. NEW ZEALAND Natalie Rooney
  3. USA Corey Cogdell

Monday, August 8 10m Air Rifle Men’s Finals:

1. ITALY Niccolo Campriani
2. UKRAINE Serhiy Kulish
3. RUSSIA Vladimir Maslennikov

Monday, August 8 Trap Men’s Gold Medal Match:

  1. CROATIA Josip Glasnovic
  2. ITALY Giovanni Pellielo
  3. GREAT BRITAIN Edward Ling

Tuesday, August 9 Pistol Women’s Gold Medal Match:

  1. GREECE Anna Korakaki
  2. GERMANY Monika Karsch
  3. SWITZERLAND Heidi Diethelm Gerber

Wednesday, August 10 50m Pistol Men’s Finals:

  1. KOREA Jongoh Jin
  2. VIETNAM Xuan Vinh Hoang
  3. DPR KOREA Song Guk Kim

Wednesday, August 10 Double Trap Men’s Medal Match:

  1. IOA Fehaid Aldeehani
  2. ITALY Marco Innocenti
  3. GREAT BRITAIN Steven Scott

Thursday, August 11 50m Rifle 3-Positional Women’s Final:

  1. GERMANY Barbara Engleder
  2. CHINA Binbin Zhang
  3. CHINA Li Du

Friday, August 12 50m Rifle Prone Men’s Finals:

  1. GERMANY Henri Junghaenel
  2. KOREA Jonghyun Kim
  3. RUSSIA Kirill Grigoryan

Friday, August 12 Skeet Women’s Medal Match:

  1. ITALY Diana Bacosi
  2. ITALY Chiara Cainero
  3. USA Kimberly Rhode

Saturday, August 13 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men’s Finals:

  1. GERMANY Christian Reitz
  2. FRANCE Jean Quiquampoix
  3. CHINA Yuehong Li

Saturday, August 13 Skeet Men’s Medal Match:

  1. ITALY Gebriele Rossetti
  2. SWEDEN Marcus Svensson
  3. IOA Abdullah Alrashidi