Bendigo rifle shooter James Daly finishes sixth at Commonwealth Games

The 29-year-old placed sixth in the 50m rifle prone final at the Belmont Shooting Complex in Brisbane on Tuesday.

He earlier qualified for the final in first place after he posted a brilliant qualifying round score of 620.5.

Daly, who was competing at the Games for the first time, admitted to a few jitters on Tuesday morning.

“It would have been magnificent to podium, but really I’m just thrilled to get to the final,” he said.

“I am not normally nervous before a competition, but I was spilling my crumbs everywhere because I couldn’t hold my toast.

“I needed to get away from the group, put the headphones in and play some games on my phone and that helped me get back to normal.

“When I got down to the shoot, I just laid down on the ground and got the heart rate down and everything just came together for the qualifying.

“It was a very, very good experience.”

Daly’s sixth placing followed on from a seventh in his ISSF World Cup debut in Germany last year.

He believed the Australian team had fared reasonably well at the Games across most disciplines.

“The rifle team has gotten into every single final so far, including two in the men’s air-rifle,” he said.

Sampson claimed gold in the men’s 10m air rifle on Monday, while Melbourne-based doctor Elena Galiabovitch on Tuesday added a silver in the women’s rapid fire pistol to her bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol on Sunday.