Walton Eller of the US shot past a group of heavyweights to claim the Olympic Double Trap shooting gold medal with a new Games record yesterday.
Eller, the youngest of the six finalists at 26, finished with 190 points to surpass by one the previous record of 189 held jointly by Ahmed al-Maktoum of the United Arab Emirates and Russell Mark of Australia.
World champion Francesco D’Aniello of Italy took the silver, while Hu Binyuan of China claimed the bronze medal.
Eller surprised a strong field that included two Olympic champions in Aussie veteran Mark and Richard Faulds of Britain, besides D’Aniello, who won last year’s world championships in Nicosia.
Eller, a student of business management in Houston, Texas, found his qualification top score of 145 come in handy as both D’Aniello and Binyuan beat him by one in the 25-shot final.
“I was actually glad to have made the final for the first time after missing out at Sydney and Athens, so to win the gold is amazing,” Eller said.
“The big guns were out there. You try not to look, but I knew they were not missing many,” Eller said.
Meanwhile, Jin Jong-oh of South Korea survived a last-minute scare to win the men’s 50m Pistol shooting gold medal in a thrilling finish yesterday.
Jin ended just 0.2 points ahead of second-placed North Korean Kim Jong-su to grab his second medal of the Games after winning the silver in the 10m event on Saturday.
World champion Tan Zongliang was forced to settle for the bronze behind the two Koreans despite starting the 10-shot final with a seemingly comfortable two-point lead over his rivals.
Local favourite Tan, who went without a medal in three previous Olympic appearances, could manage only 659.5 as he failed to touch the 10-point mark in seven of his 10 shots in the final.
Defending champion Mikhail Nestruev of Russia failed to reach the final.
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