Shooting: Shooters miss medals target

Commonwealth Games veteran Greg Yelavich reckons the New Zealand shooting team need only adjust their sights by 5 per cent to end their bleak run of form in Melbourne.

New Zealand endured another close-but-no-bullseye day yesterday, failing to add to the sole bronze secured by 50m prone rifle pair Juliet Etherington and Kathryn Mead.

Of the five events up for grabs yesterday, New Zealand were well in the running in four. They ended up with finishes of fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh.

A prime example of the New Zealand pattern at these Games came from men's skeet pair Malcolm Duff and Paul Wilson, who were hovering in second and third place for much of the event before a poor final round saw them slump to seventh with a combined total of 179 points.

Yelavich and Jason Wakeling were within sight of a medal in the 25m centre fire pistol pairs but finished just three points off bronze, in fifth place.

Even for Yelavich, a veteran of six Games, the frustration is building.

"The whole team feels like that, to be honest," he said.

"We discussed it amongst ourselves and we're fairly disappointed. Our trialling and our scores at home have been fairly on a par with some of the scores here to win.

"But when we've fronted up here, we're 5 per cent out. And 5 per cent seems to put us down to fifth or sixth all the time."

Yelavich has won 10 Commonwealth Games medals, the most by any New Zealander, and is struggling to pinpoint the reason for so many near-misses.

One factor has been the massive improvement of the shooters from India, which has poured enormous resources into the sport.

Yelavich said it was important that a defeatist mindset didn't creep into the New Zealand team, with nearly half the competition still remaining.

"We can't put our finger on it but it is darn frustrating. Among the whole team we're like that," he said.

"At the end of the match, someone comes up and asks, 'Well, did you get fourth or fifth or sixth?' "

Yelavich said international experience wasn't lacking in the New Zealand team. However, nerves still affected everyone and as ever it was a matter of controlling them.

Yelavich and Wakeling shot in the late 90s for all but one of their six rounds yesterday. Wakeling shot one round of 90 and Yelavich an 89, which proved their downfall.

"I thought we had a chance for a medal in this one, Jason and I have been fairly consistent in our scores in this," Yelavich said.

"We've been training quite well, it's a bit disappointing."

Elsewhere, Erin Discombe and Melanie Hoverd were fourth out of four in a closely contested women's skeet competition. Only gold and silver were up for grabs and the New Zealanders' score of 84 had them just four off second place.

In the men's 50m rifle 3 positions pairs, Dayle Slinn and David Grummitt struggled at times in the breezy conditions but held on for sixth with a total score of 2241.

Sheryl Glass missed the top-eight final in the women's 10m air rifle, and ranked 13 out of 28 with a score of 388.

- NZPA