Shooting: Six medals at Bisley range - and all go to women

By NICK BROWN

Juliet Etherington and Jocelyn Lees added two more bronze medals to the shooting team's tally yesterday - all won by women.

Lees' bronze in the 25m pistol singles matched the colour of the medal she won in the pairs event with Tania Corrigan.

The same combination won two silver medals at the Kuala Lumpur Games four years ago, so her success at the Bisley range has not been surprising.

But Games debutante Etherington did not expect to win anything on her present form and was ready to accept the fourth placing initially awarded her.

She was promoted when the organisers realised that Malaysia's Nurul Hudda Baharin's "perfect" last round of 10 shots was not so perfect after all because another shooter had crossfired on to her target.

The countback was held on the last round of 10 shots, for which Etherington scored 98 out of a 100 points for her total of 586.

Australia's Kim Frazer won the gold medal, on a countback from South Africa's Esmari van Reenen after both shot 588 points.

Etherington, 33, has been shooting in the 50m smallbore event for just 3 1/2 years and was a bag of nerves in Wednesday's smallbore pairs when she and Kathryn Mead were sixth.

"My sanity today was really different from the pairs match. That was my first Games shoot and I was just shaking constantly. So today I turned up a bit later to the range and thought, 'Right I've got nothing to lose - just go for it'," she said.

"I was still shaking. There were still the nerves there, but I was concentrating on firing good shots and that got me through in the end."

She had won a Commonwealth championship bronze medal last year in the pairs competition, but said it did not rate with the Games medal.

"The Games match is completely different. The atmosphere here is a whole level up. There's people back home watching your every move."

Mead was ninth in the smallbore event yesterday on 581 points.

The New Zealand women shooters have wound up with a gold, silver and four bronze medals between them at these Games - where for the first time since Edinburgh in 1970 a male New Zealand marksman has not mounted the dais.

New Zealand's most successful Games competitor, Greg Yelavich, completed his campaign without adding to his personal tally of 10 medals. He was ninth in the men's 25m centre fire pistol singles, 12 points behind the record total of India's gold medallist Jaspal Rana.

- NZPA

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