Catherine Skinner has claimed Australia’s first Paris 2024 Quota for shooting at the ISSF World Championships in Osijek, Croatia. Skinner was taking part in the Trap Women event where she scored 118/125 in qualification, shooting a further 3 targets in a shoot off to place 4th, qualifying for the semi-finals.
In the Semi-Final, Skinner scored 21/25 targets qualifying for the Medal Match, as well as securing Australia’s first quota in the Trap Women event for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Skinner would go on to score 10/15 targets in the Medal Match placing 4th.
The ISSF World Championships in Osijek, Croatia will host approximately 650 athletes from more than 75 countries from 5 continents taking part in individual, team, and mixed team events. 16 Quota places in total for Paris 2024 are allocated in each individual event, with 4 in Trap Men, 4 in Trap Women, 4 in Skeet Men, and 4 in Skeet Women.
The World Championships is the first chance for athletes from Asia, Africa, America, and Oceania to win Quotas for their countries, with Skinner taking the opportunity to secure a place for Australia’s Trap Women at the Games in 2024.
This isn’t the first Quota place Skinner has won on the open market, with Skinner saying “This (World Championships) has been a really good Omen for me, I won the Quota for the Rio Olympics in the 2014 World Championships.”
On Skinner securing a Quota for Australia, Shooting Australia CEO Adam Sachs had this to say, “I’m thrilled that our AUS Team has officially crossed the start line for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Congratulations to Catherine for securing the first of what we hope will be many Shooting quotas to the Games. After qualifying strongly, she showed real grit to make the medal match and demonstrated once again that she is a world-class athlete.”
Up next for Skinner (Thursday 29th September) is the Trap Mixed Teams where she teams up with Thomas Grice. On the Trap Mixed Teams, Skinner said “I’ll just try to approach it the same way, I think the pattern is working pretty well and we’ll just try to hit as many targets as we can.”
Skinner will close out her World Championships Campaign on Friday in the Trap Team Women event with Laetisha Scanlan and Penny Smith, where she expects them to bring their A game. “I’m expecting A game, we’re such a strong team, I expect nothing less.”
