The journey to Australian team selection for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games commenced yesterday when over 30 of Australia’s best men’s and women’s trap and skeet shooters contested the Commonwealth and National Championships.
The Championships are two of four events for shotgun shooting athletes to win Olympic team nomination.
Pistol and rifle athletes will each contest separate Olympic selection events in February and March before Shooting Australia nominates athletes for selection to the AOC.
Following international competitions in 2018 and 2019, 25 trap and 11 skeet athletes registered Minimum Qualification Scores (MQS), which confirm their eligibility for Tokyo Olympic Games selection.
Among the trap athletes competing at Newcastle are 2016 Rio Olympic Games women’s gold medallist, Catherine Skinner, and 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Laetisha Scanlan.
Men’s trap shooters Adam Vella, James Willett and 2019 Oceania Championship gold medallist Mitchell Iles are seeking back-to-back Olympic team selection as is women’s skeet shooter Aislin Jones, 2019 Oceania Championship skeet gold medallist Paul Adams and Keith Ferguson.
“We are very fortunate to have an immense pool of talented trap and skeet shooters who have all registered MQS’s.
And, they’re going to need to bring their best individual performances to gain Olympic team selection over the next three months,” Shooting Australian National High-Performance Director, Adam Sachs explained.
“Australia has won 15 Tokyo Olympic Games quota positions across all shooting disciplines, and six of these will be filled by men’s and women’s trap and skeet athletes.
We will also field two teams in the trap mixed team’s event from the individual trap athletes selected to our Olympic team,” Sachs said.
In the men’s events, skeet shooter Luke Argiro and younger brother, trap shooter Nathan Argiro, will be vying for selection.
Aislin Jones, who became Australia’s youngest ever Olympic shooter aged just 16 at Rio 2016, and sister Renae Jones will also be looking to make it an Olympic family affair.
In the women’s skeet event, Brittany Melbourne will be looking to emulate twin sister, Ellie Cole, who has competed at the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games and who is looking make her third Paralympics in Tokyo.
So far on day one of competition, Penny Smith and Thomas Grice claimed gold in the Mixed Pairs, with Todd Malone and Georgia Pistone taking silver and bronze for Daniel Di Pietro and Stephanie Pile.
In the Skeet Men, Luke Argiro started with a perfect round, downing all 25 targets, whilst Joshua Bell downed all 25 targets in the final round of the day.
You can keep up to date with results HERE and watch the live stream HERE
