Shooting: Gold, silver for shooting stars

Graeme Ede pumps his fist after smashing his target to take the gold medal. Picture / Mark Mitchell

Melbourne hasn't been a hotbed for New Zealand medal activity during the Commonwealth Games, but shooters Graeme Ede and Juliet Etherington spearheaded one of the best returns yesterday.

Ede won the individual trap gold medal after a gripping shootoff, followed by a three-way sudden death eliminator at the Melbourne Gun Club an hour out of the city. That followed Etherington's silver medal in the prone rifle, her second silver of the Games.

And earlier, weightlifter Keisha-Dean Soffe in the 75kg and over division and women's bowls pair Jan and Marina Khan bagged bronze medals to give the Kiwi medal count a badly needed boost.

Ede, a tall, self-effacing agricultural contractor from Southbridge, 25 minutes south of Christchurch, returned to competitive shooting three years ago, having contested the Games in 1994 then taking a nine-year break.

Yesterday, at the finish of a long, draining day in broiling heat, with frequent interventions by swarms of flies and insects, the 46-year-old saw off a strong field, including double Olympic champion Michael Diamond and his fellow Australian, world No 3 Adam Vella, holding his nerve in a dramatic finale.

Ede had qualified second for the six-man shootoff, two behind classy Indian Manavjit Singh Sandhu, with 120 targets out of 125.

But Ede faltered badly at the start of the 25-shot shootoff, missing four of his first five targets. At one point he dropped from second to fourth.

Then he gathered his thoughts and nudged himself back into contention in what steadily became a three-man race, also involving Northern Ireland's David Beattie.

All three could have won the gold with their final shot. Incredibly they all missed, leading to a sudden-death tiebreaker.

There, Beattie and Sandhu missed their second shots. Ede steadied himself, drew a bead on the orange target and a puff of pink dust from the exploding disc signalled gold.

Ede pumped his fist in delight, Dave Dobbyn's Slice of Heaven boomed around the ground and he was engulfed by teammates and partner Kim Ridgen who reckoned her heart wouldn't stop thumping.

It is New Zealand's third gold of the Games but there was no haka for this one. The gun fraternity are straight shooting types, so to speak, but there was no disguising their delight.

"Seeing the other two gentlemen miss, and then lining up the target and nailing it to guarantee the gold, yeah, quite good," Ede said, displaying a master's degree in understatement.

Ede knew the state of play at the start of the shootoff, but as the marksmen's fortunes fluctuated he had no idea how he was travelling on the scoreboard.

"I just concentrated on shooting my own game and in single-barrel shootoffs anything can happen right to the shot," Ede said.

Shotgun coach Gavin Paton reckoned Ede was turning in some of his best work in the last few months, during which he won the national and North Island titles.

"He's shooting the best I've ever seen him," Paton said.

Ede is not a shout-from-the-rooftops type, but he admitted he's shooting "better than ever. More consistent."

He was inspired to return to the sport by the gold medal won by Nadine Stanton and Theresa Borrell in the double trap pair at Manchester four years ago.

"And knowing the Games were going to be in Melbourne. I've shot reasonably well here over the years."

Ede said a piece of advice from the controversial Diamond during the world championships in Italy had been key to his gold.

Roughly translated, it was never to move his eyes once he settled on the spot from which the target was to emerge. Cameras positioned in front of shooters can be a momentary, costly distraction.

"Michael's a very good friend of mine. I've known hm since he was 14 or 15, coming to New Zealand for the nationals. I thanked him very much for the help that he's given me," Ede said.

For a time, New Zealand looked on course for two in the top six shootoff, but Alan Sinclair slipped from equal third going into the final qualification round to finish in a share of ninth.

Etherington scored 585 points out of a maximum 600. Just one more point would have given her gold as she would have tied with Scottish winner Sheena Sharp and won on a countback.

The closeness of the result wasn't lost on Etherington, 26, who won bronze in the same event at the Manchester Games four years ago.

"I would have to say I could have done better, I was only one shot off the gold," she said.

"Maybe three [out of 60] shots weren't as good as they could have been, so there were a few opportunities to score more points and to have won. But it could have been a lot worse too I suppose."