Team GB win third gold medal of Paris 2024 as Nathan Hales sets new Olympic record to triumph in trap shooting final
NATHAN HALES has won Team GB's third gold medal of the Paris 2024 Olympics, triumphing in the men's trap shooting final.
The 28-year-old set a new Games record as he beat off stiff competition from China's Qi Ying to win gold.
The previous record was 43/50, set by Czech star David Kostelecky in Tokyo.
Dad-of-two Hales performed brilliantly to smash that score, posting 48 in victory - four more than silver medallist Qi.
Hailing from Chatham in Kent, Hales is the world record holder in the men’s trap.
And after a perfect morning in which he hit all 50 targets to conclude the qualifying round, Hales came up with the golden good on the shooting range of Chateauroux, three hours outside the capital.
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While the rest of the six-man field faltered under the pressure, Hales was remorseless.
He missed just two of his 50 shots at the clay targets to set the new Olympics record.
It meant he had already beaten runner-up Qi Ying of China with THREE shots to spare. Jean Pierre Brol Cardenas of Guatemala took bronze.
Hales is Britain's first shooting gold medallist since Peter Wilson in 2012.
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He joins Team GB's brilliant equestrian team and mountain biker Tom Pidcock in winning gold.
British trio Ros Canter, Laura Collett and Tom McEwen successfully defended GB's team eventing title in Versailles yesterday.
Pidcock, 24, then came back from a puncture to win gold in the men's mountain bike cross country.