CHATEAUROUX, England (AP) — British shooter Nathan Hales kept his cool in the French heat to take Olympic gold in men’s trap shooting Tuesday, and Guatemala won only the second medal in its history with bronze.
Hales smashed clay targets and an Olympic record as he scored 48 out of 50 hits in the final. That’s five more than the previous Olympic best and one short of his own world record.
“It’s been an amazing experience, just absolutely unreal. I’m very emotional,” he said.
Without any shade on the open-air shotgun range, the heat wave in France made it even harder than usual to stay consistent and concentrated.
Hales had been neck-and-neck with China’s Qi Ying, but Qi had to settle for silver after he missed four of his last 17 shots for a total of 44. Hales finished on a streak of 18 hits in a row.
Jean Pierre Brol, the oldest shooter in the final at the age of 41, won the bronze for Guatemala’s first medal since race walker Erick Barrondo’s silver at the 2012 London Olympics.
“I’m so excited. If I talk too much I’ll begin to cry,” Brol said. “It was very hard and very hot. This is a great thing for my country.”
Brol was on course for elimination but overtook Sweden’s Rickard Levin-Andersson for third place when the Swedish shooter missed three shots in a row.
The United States’ wait for a shooting medal at the Paris Olympics will continue after Derrick Mein placed fifth.
Serbia won the gold in mixed team 10-meter air pistol as Zorana Arunovic and Damir Mikec beat Turkey’s Sevval Ilayda Tarhan and Yusuf Dikec 16-14 in the final. Arunovic and Mikec hugged and fell to the floor together after making the winning shots.
It was the first Olympic medal of any kind for Arunovic, who is the world record holder in the individual 10-meter air pistol but had a history of near-misses at the Games. She placed fourth in 25-meter pistol in 2012 and fourth again in the team event with Mikec in Tokyo in 2021.
Mikec said he felt his mother, who died 21 years ago, was with him after noticing that the serial number on his Olympic credentials was her date of birth.
Tarhan, who is 24, said she and her 51-year-old Turkish teammate Dikec are like “father and daughter, almost” despite their age gap.
India’s Manu Bhaker won her second bronze medal of the Paris Olympics after she and teammate Sarabjot Singh won 16-10 against South Korea’s Lee Wonho and Oh Ye Jin in the bronze-medal match.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
