Shooting: Prolific Games medallist adds another silver

For the past 10 days members of the New Zealand Commonwealth Games team have been telling Greg Yelavich that the letters AA on his Games accreditation card stood for "Ageing Athlete".

The old fella, aged 49 and the survivor of campaigns at six consecutive Commonwealth Games, showed them all a thing or two yesterday. He stepped up and won a silver medal for pistol shooting.

It was medal number 11 for Yelavich, adding to a tally that had him ranked as New Zealand's most prolific medal-winner in the history of the Commonwealth Games before he even got to Melbourne.

This time Yelavich survived a three-way shoot-off in the men's 25-metre centre fire pistol to win the silver and came within a few agonising clicks of his pistol scope of winning the gold instead.

After finishing the qualifying rounds in a three-way tie on points with Shaw Ming On of India and Samaresh Jung of Singapore, Yelavich had to call on all his experience to survive the first round that eliminated Ming On. But the shoot-off for gold went Jung's way in the second relay. Yelavich and Jung both shot 48 in the first gold medal shoot-off round. Jung scored 49 and Yelavich 47 in the next in what was an intense atmosphere at the Melbourne International Shooting Club.

"I was fairly nervous through the first period but once I got going I wasn't that nervous at all.

"Let's face it, the worst-case scenario was that I was going to get a medal," Yelavich said.

He admitted he may have made an error by not readjusting his scope for the penultimate relay, an adjustment he thinks could have won him gold after the first shoot-off round. But he was still smiling afterwards.

"I probably made a mistake, I never pulled my scope out because it was only five shots. Really I probably shot a little bit low and I could have come up a few more clicks.

"But ... oh well."

As he prepared to shoot, Yelavich was the most composed of the three, turning to face a clamouring crowd in the intimate venue. As this was Yelavich's last event in Melbourne and he had failed to medal in four other shooting events here, it was an unusual way to prepare for such a vital round.

But he revealed it was all part of the way he coped with the pressure.

"I realised, hey you might as well enjoy the moment you know, everyone is here to see you, so you might as well be part of it. Which is why I stood facing the crowd, because the others are closed in their little box and I thought, 'hey let's enjoy this, it might be my last time, you never know'. I am very pleased to finish this campaign with a medal. I never got one at the last Games in Manchester."