SHOOTING: Australian shot gun shooters have won a gold, silver and bronze medal at the first World Cup of the season in Tuscon, USA.
SHOOTING: Australian shot gun shooters have won a gold, silver and bronze medal at the first World Cup of the season in Tuscon, USA.
In an Olympic-class field, Victorians Laetisha Scanlan (Berwick, VIC) and Catherine Skinner (Mansfield, VIC) have rewritten Shooting Australia’s history after winning gold and bronze in the women’s trap. A day later Michael Diamond won the silver medal in the men's trap to make is three medals for the Australians.
Around the same time last year, at the first World Cup in Al Ain, UAE, Scanlan and Skinner created history by becoming the first Australian women to win the gold and silver medals in the same event.
Shooting Australia CEO Damien Marangon said it was an excellent start for the 2014 ISSF World Cup season.
“Congratulations to Laetisha and Catherine on an outstanding performance at the World Cup - to almost re-create history again and produce these results on the world stage is an amazing achievement," Marangon said.
“If last year’s event was announcing to the world they have arrived, this result tells the world they are here to stay.”
With the Tucson World Cup serving as the final event in the 2014 Commonwealth Games selection period, Scanlan and Skinner’s result propels them in the right direction towards team selection for Glasgow.
Earlier in the day Scanlan had qualified for the six-athlete semi-final in first place after recording a score of 70 targets across her three rounds of qualifying; whilst Skinner shot 66 targets and qualified in fifth place. 2004 Olympic champion Suzy Balogh just missed the finals qualifying in seventh spot. In the gold medal match, Scanlan recorded 12 targets the same as her direct opponent Great Britain’s Sarah Wixey, forcing the two into a sudden death shoot off. Scanlan again showed maturity beyond her years to claim the shoot off and take the gold.
Skinner showed similar poise under pressure to also hit 12 targets, duelling with Italy’s Deborah Gelisio to win the bronze medal match by two targets.
Dual Olympic gold medallist Michael Diamond (1996 and 2000) was top of the leaderboard after the first day of qualification and he shot a perfect round semi-final but in the gold medal match India's 2006 World Champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu was too good winning 13-9 after Diamond faltered to miss four consecutive shots mid-way through the tense final.
Athens 2004 Olympic bronze medallist Adam Vella finished seventh and Sydney 23-year-old Michael McNabb was 48th.
A full list of results from the World Cup can be found here>>>
