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Australian Team Chef de Mission Steve Moneghetti today thanked the people of the Gold Coast and Queensland for hosting a memorable Commonwealth Games.

Australian Athletes including gold medallists Mark Knowles, Bronte Campbell, Dan Repacholi, Madison de Rosario and Gold Coast local Skye Nicolson gathered at Surfers Paradise this morning to thank the local community for their overwhelming support of the Games.

Moneghetti said the support of Gold Coast locals, Queensland and across Australia had helped the entire team achieve incredible results. “I am incredibly proud of our Australian Team for how they have competed and the success which they have achieved on the Gold Coast,” he said.

“Our total of 198 medals including 80 gold is the best return from an Australian Commonwealth Games team since our last home Games in Melbourne 2006. “But the medal tally is just one measure of success.

“I have been so thrilled to see how our athletes have embraced competing in front of a home crowd. In every venue, at every session, the support for our team was just amazing.

“Our Australian team totalled 710, but it felt like we had the support of more than 24 million Australian’s on our side.

“That support also came from the enormous group of wonderful volunteers who made these Games possible and who offered a friendly face at every turn,” he said.

Australian Commonwealth Games CEO Craig Phillips said success on the Gold Coast had been a team effort. “Gold Coast 2018 has been an overwhelming success,” he said.

“Australia has a proud history of hosting successful Commonwealth Games and Gold Coast 2018 will long be remembered as one of the best.

“The support for our Australian Team and the overall success of the event has really shown us that the Games will always have a home in Australia.

“Commonwealth Games Australia is proud to have worked closely with key delivery partners including GOLDOC, Queensland Government, Gold Coast City Council and Australian Government to deliver a great event. Our high performance partners including the AIS, State and Territory Institutes of Sport and Australian Paralympic Committee helped create the successful performance environment for our team that gave them every chance of success.

“We also acknowledge the wonderful support of the Commonwealth Games Australia sponsor family led by The Star, Griffith University, Tafe Queensland, Optus, Atos and Woolworths,” Phillips said.

The original article can be found on the Commonwealth Games website here

BRISBANE – Australia’s Laetisha SCANLAN celebrated her 28th birthday in the best possible way, winning a title in the women’s trap at the Belmont Shooting Centre on Friday 13 April.

The qualification eliminated some high-profile contenders with Rio 2016 Olympic Games gold medallist Catherine SKINNER (AUS) and Rio 2016 silver medallist Natalie ROONEY (NZL) missing the final.

Defending Glasgow 2014 champion, SCANLAN also went close to elimination, just making it through to the final as the last and sixth qualifier after a tense shoot-off with ROONEY.

SCANLAN, who had also made the final in Glasgow after a shoot-off, started the final session strongly, taking a lead in the first 10 targets then hitting all from 19 to 27 to increase the margin before clinching the gold medal with a Commonwealth Games record of 38.

Kirsty BARR (NIR) took silver with 37, her first Commonwealth Games medal at her third Games.

Top qualifier for the final, Sarah WIXEY (WAL), claimed bronze with 28. The Welsh shooter was second after the 30th target, but then four consecutive misses cost her a chance for the silver medal.

Commonwealth Games News Services

Retiring shooter Dan Repacholi has claimed the Hunter’s second gold medal of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games after taking out the men’s 50 metre pistol event on Wednesday.

The 35-year-old, with his wife Alex and two daughters in the stands at the Belmont Shooting Centre, finished 6.7 points ahead of his nearest rival Bangladesh’s Shakil Ahmed (220.5). India’s Om Mitharval (201.1) was third.

“It’s amazing,” he told Channel 7 straight after the victory. “To win gold in front of my beautiful wife, my two beautiful kids and all our family it’s fantastic.”

Repacholi said the result could have been different without the home-crowd support.
“Definitely [you get something from them],” he said. “It was great, they were behind me the whole way. I don’t know if the same result would have happened if they weren’t here or if it was in another country.”

Earlier this week Repacholi was fourth in the final of the 10m air pistol, which he won in Glasgow in 2014, but bounced back for the longer-distance decider, “I continued to build and build and build throughout the final and just got better as it went,” he said. “That’s what you need to do in a final, unfortunately I didn’t get to do that in the last event two days ago but this time I have so it’s fantastic.”

The four-time Olympian now has six medals, featuring three gold, from four Commonwealth Games appearances starting in Melbourne 12 years ago.

Before the event he announced this would be his last international shoot.

Original article by Josh Callinan can be found here.

Dane Sampson started Australia’s #GC2018 shooting campaign with a bang, clinching gold in a tense final of the men’s 10m air rifle competition.

Queenslander Sampson prevailed with a score of 245.0, edging out Bangladeshi Abdullah Hel Baki (silver) and India’s Ravi Kumar (bronze), while 16-year-old Aussie Alex Hoberg narrowly missed the podium and finished fourth.

Sampson had a distinct home ground advantage at the Belmont Shooting Complex.

“I pretty much grew up here,” Sampson said. “My mum was shooting here when she was pregnant with me, basically, literally on this range. It’s special, having it here,” he said.

Shooting in her first international final, Elena Galiabovitch claimed bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol. Galiabovitch showed nerves of steel to snare Australia’s first shooting medal, scoring 214.9 points.

“I feel great and worked so hard for this – it is a bit of a relief and I am a bit tired, but really excited and happy.

“I was really happy to be in the final. I haven’t been in an international final before so it’s an exciting experience and the crowd really spurred me on. Interestingly I didn’t get distracted by it.”

Indian teen sensation Manu Bhaker won gold with ease, finishing an astonishing 6.9 points clear in front with a Commonwealth Games record total of 240.9, while compatriot Heena Sidhu took the silver medal.

Victorian Aislin Jones, reached the women’s skeet finals after qualifying with the second-highest score but was the first shooter eliminated.Fellow Australian and defending champion Laura Coles was eliminated.

Ashley Gillespie – Commonwealth Games Australia