Australia has a third gold medal in the Rio Olympics, after Catherine Skinner took out the trap shooting event, ahead of New Zealander Natalie Rooney.
Skinner wasn’t expected to take Gold, so it’s a bonus that’s kept Australia on top of the medal tally this morning. This is Skinner’s first international competition win.
The 26-year-old is from Mansfield in Victoria, and took up shooting at the age of just 12, following her brother into the sport. Her pre-competition warm-up includes eating a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Triple Caramel Choc Chunk for dinner – so you know where she might get her first major sponsor. She won a junior World Cup silver medal in Munich in 2010 and claimed our only shooting medal at the 2013 Summer Universiade. Last year she actually put her studies first, taking an incredible six months off from the sport – and still managing to return to international competition this year.
Following the event, Skinner said anyone could have won, it just so happened to be her day. “It’s been a rough sort of process, because I keep on being the bridesmaid. So I’ve got several silvers, several bronzes, and finally I’ve got the gold,” she said. There has been lots of tears and tantrums in the build-up to this. I’m sure there are plenty of people back at home saying, ‘I told you so.’ You just never know.”
Skinner’s gold follows victory for the women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay team yesterday, along with Mack Horton’s win in the 400 metres freestyle.
Meanwhile also this morning, Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith have won bronze in the 3m synchronised diving.
