Joshua Collard has added to Australia’s medal tally at the 2013 Qatar Open by winning a bronze medal in the men’s trap in Doha.
The day after Laetisha Scanlan had won gold in the women’s trap, Collard held his nerve to win a bronze medal after earlier surviving a tense semi-final shoot-off.
The 20-year-old Victorian had qualified for the semi-final in equal fourth position after shooting 119 from 125 targets, including a clean fourth round of 25 targets.
In the semi-final Collard hit 12 from 15, ranking him equal fourth once again, and forcing him into a shoot-off with Kuwait’s Abdullah Alhammli in a bid to make the bronze medal match.
He progressed to the bronze medal encounter after Alhammli missed his third target in the shoot-off, and once again showed experience beyond his years to defeat another Kuwaiti shooter, Abdulrahman Alfaihan, to win the bronze medal.
Collard said he had enjoyed the opportunity to shoot at the event.
“The more international exposure our squad gets, the more it will aid us in the future and I benefited from it greatly today,” Collard said. “The new semi-finals and finals rules really leave the competition open to everyone and it was pretty tense out there.
“I was really happy with how I shot at the business end of the event and this experience will help me out in future events.”
The two other Australians in the 61 person field, Jack Wallace and James Grice, finished in 29th and 45th places respectively.
0 Comments