New Zealand trap shooter Graeme Ede was the best shooter in the Olympic Games field yesterday - baffling and frustrating him because the day before his medal hopes were dashed when he was among the worst.
Ede was on fire at the Beijing Shooting Range as he hit
49 of 50 targets, a score matched only by Olympic record holder Alexey Alipov.
The Cantabrian's problem - ordinary form in the first 75 shots on Saturday - meant he could climb only to 20th of 35, even with his world-topping shoot. Overall he hit 114 of 125 targets.
Even Commonwealth Games champion Ede, 48, could not explain how he could go from being fourth-worst one day to equal best in the space of 24 hours, or how he could shoot better scores when it was raining and the visibility was poor.
He was kicking himself when shooters on 119 made the final. That was a score he had aimed for, had shot in practice, and felt he could have achieved.
Ede felt he had the ability to make the six-shooter final, but an appalling third bracket of 20 from 25 yesterday crippled that ambition.
It wasn't nerves, his form just deserted him, he said.
He had dampened down the pressure by trying to treat it as an ordinary event, rather than the Olympics.
"It just didn't happen on the day. I did exactly the same thing today, and it worked. I was pretty gutted yesterday. I gave it everything. It was extremely hot yesterday, the heat seemed to affect me a little more than the others."
Ede was constantly wiping his hands in the heat, to keep them from slipping.
He also had a few issues with the edges of his shooting glasses misting up, but he had encountered problems like that before.
At least his performance yesterday put him in a better frame of mind going into his back up event, the double trap, tomorrow.
- NZPA
