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Australia's Smith claims shooting bronze at Olympics

3 minute read

Australian trap shooter Penny Smith has won her first Olympic medal, taking trap bronze after scraping into the final.

The Little Giants from Bookaar and Guatemala have slayed their rivals in women's trap shooting at the Paris Olympics.

Penny Smith won Australia's first shooting medal at the Paris Games on Wednesday when she claimed bronze at Chateauroux.

But the toast of Bookaar - population 159 - near Camperdown in Victoria's Western District, was overshadowed by Adriana Ruano Oliva's historic win.

Ruano Oliva won Guatemala's first-ever Olympic gold medal, setting the Olympic record with her score of 45 out of 50 in the final.

She finished five shots clear of Italian Maria Stanco.

Nicknamed "Pequena Gigante" - Little Giant - Ruano Oliva is a former gymnast who retired from the sport in 2011 because of a spinal injury.

She showed ample backbone in the final and was the only one of the six competitors to nail her first 15 shots.

That gave Ruano Oliva a crucial buffer that she maintained to the end.

Guatemala had only won a silver and bronze before these Olympics.

Paris is proving to be a medal rush for the South American country - on Tuesday, Jean Pierre Brol Cardenas won bronze in the men's trap.

Ruano Oliva dedicated the gold medal to her late father, who died a month before the Tokyo Olympics, where she struggled and finished 26th..

"Since then I have done a lot of work with a lot of love and this is dedicated to my angel, my family and to God," she said.

Family also has had a major influence on Smith's sport - her mother Kim was at the 1984 Los Angeles Games as a groom for equestrian great Andrew Hoy, at the first of his eight Olympics.

She said her father Michael was also shortlisted at one point for Olympic selection as a groom.

Smith was the typical sporty country kid, trying a wide range of pursuits, before family intervened and turned her towards trap shooting.

"It was only after my brother's motorcycling accident, when he took up shooting, that I got involved in the sport," Smith said.

"You never know the places where life is going to lead you and I am really pleased now I have got an Olympic bronze medal."

Camperdown is also the birthplace of road time trial gold medallist Grace Brown.

Smith, the 29-year-old left-hander, was steady in Wednesday's final for her first Olympic medal.

But two misses in her last elimination round left Smith one off the pace and she raised her arms to the crowd after scoring 32, five clear of fourth.

The world No.11 was sixth in the trap and mixed trap team at the Tokyo Games.

Earlier on Wednesday, Smith prevailed in a three-way shoot-off to make the final.

She joins Suzy Balogh (gold, 2004) and Catherine Skinner (gold, 2016) as Australian Olympic medallists in the women's trap.

Skinner also compete on Wednesday, but did not make it to the final.

The pressure told on Spain's world No.1 Fatima Galvez, who missed several shots early in the final and was the second of the six medal contenders to be eliminated.

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