Continuing on from Penny Smith’s individual Silver medal on Tuesday, the Australian Shotgun team has today dominated in the Trap Mixed Teams event at the ISSF World Cup in Changwon, Korea securing both the gold and silver medals.
The mixed team of Penny Smith and James Willett shot an impressive combined score of 146 out of a possible 150 targets to secure a top qualifying position. Catherine Skinner and Thomas Grice shot 143 out of 150, finishing second in qualifying and securing an all Australian Gold medal match
Into the medal match where the two top qualifiers would contest the gold and silver medals, it was inevitable that both would be coming home to Australia! After the first two series of 10 targets, both teams were tied before Smith and Willett proved too strong winning the gold medal 6 points to 2.
As top qualifiers and when asked about the final Smith said ‘…we both had a really good qualifying and really good final…and Catherine and Tom shot extremely well today also…it was really hot and humid out there but a good day out.’ Willet acknowledged that the targets were really good and ‘had a really strong qualifying to get into the gold medal match and I think we all shot well and really happy to come away with the results we got today.’
Skinner and Grice won the silver medal, with this being Skinners second mixed teams medal this year and Grices first. When asked how they found it out on the range today, Skinner said ‘really hot and really humid and I think quite challenging conditions again’, to which Grice echoed and added ‘visibility was not as good as you might expect but very nice targets.’
When being asked what it is like shooting in a medal match against your team mates, both teams laughed with Willet jokingly saying ‘…no VAR [Video Assisted Referee] and no timeouts’.
The gold and silver medals in Changwon further cemented the Australian athletes strength in the trap mixed team event, resulting in medals at all four ISSF World Cups attended this year. Todays medals added to the gold medal won by Willett and Laetisha Scanlan in Azerbaijan, bronze medal won by Willett and Skinner in Italy and the silver and bronze medals won by Willett and Scanlan and Mitch Iles and Smith in Cyprus.
The trap shotgun athletes will now return to Australia and the focus will turn to the athletes competing in the remaining skeet (shotgun), pistol and rifle events.
