Australia has qualified a further five Olympic quotas in shooting on the third day of the 2011 Oceania Championships which culminated in a thrilling one target victory by Laetisha Scanlan (Berwick, VIC) in the women’s trap.

On another hot and sticky day at the Sydney International Shooting Centre, Scanlan hit her last target in the final of the women’s trap, before New Zealander Natalie Rooney missed with her final attempt to hand Scanlan the victory and Australia the Olympic quota place in the event.

Rooney had led into the final after shooting an excellent 72 from 75 over the three qualifying rounds, while Scanlan trailed by two after an equally impressive 70.

With the other four finalists trailing by four targets or more heading into the 25 target single barrel final, it came down to a fight between two and the pair swapped the lead on several occasions.

Scanlan, 21, and Rooney were locked on an overall score of 85 with one target remaining but Scanlan held her nerve to seal the victory.
Scanlan said she was happy with the way she performed across the event.

“I’ve not had a good track record in Sydney so thought I’d come up here and try my best,” Scanlan said. “The Oceania’s is a really important event and to shoot 70 I am really happy with.

“I only got Nat by one in the final in the end but I guess one is better than none, but there was a large amount of pressure for everyone out there.

“The thing about a single barrel final is that anything can happen and I gave myself a big chance heading into the final and fortunately I got the result.”

With Australia’s women trap stocks full of talented shooters, the race will now be on for selection in the category between Scanlan, 2004 Olympic gold medallist Suzy Balogh (Sydney, NSW), Catherine Skinner (Mansfield, VIC) and Stacy Roiall (Lara, VIC).

In other results on day three of the competition, 2008 Olympic Games Bronze medalist Warren Potent (Currans Hill, NSW) took out the 50m men’s rifle prone with a final score of 700.

Potent had a great start to the event, scoring a 597 from 600 in the preliminary round to hold a lead of seven heading into the ten shot final.

Dane Sampson (Brisbane, QLD) finished second ensuring that Australia won both available Olympic quotas available in the competition.

Daniel Repacholi (Pokolbin, NSW) won Australia’s third quota for the day, claiming victory in the men’s 10m air pistol with a score of 673.9, while Robyn Van Nus (Perth, WA) ensured Australia completed another clean sweep of available quotas on the third day of competition with victory in the women’s 50m rifle 3 position.

Van Nus secured the Olympic quota with a total score of 670.4, while Alethea Sedgman (Arapiles, VIC) and Jennifer Hens (Mt Riverview, NSW) came in second and third respectively.

The Australian Shooting Team has now won 16 Olympic quotas for London next year and will have the chance on the final day of the competition to qualify a further two - in the men’s trap and the men’s 50m pistol.

Australia qualified 17 shooters for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and is on track to equal or eclipse that mark next year.

Australia’s prospective team for London will be nominated to the Australian Olympic Committee in April (shotgun) and May (pistol and rifle) next year following a number of international and domestic events.

Australian International Shooting Ltd