Going out with gold
Family calls after great times at top
SHOOTING: Daniel Repacholi has been talked out of retirement twice before – but this time, it’s for real. Probably.
After saying goodbye to the Commonwealth Games with another gold medal, with his wife and two kids watching on, the gentle giant of Australian shooting is keen to go out on top.
Sporting an enormous beard that would put Ned Kelly to shame, the sheer accuracy of the 35-year-old in yesterday’s 50m pistol final might have had the legendary bushranger covered too.
Repacholi was dialled in, with his last 14 shots all scoring 9.2 points or greater, as he romped to a comprehensive victory ahead of Bangladesh’s Shakil Ahmed and India’s Om Mitharval.
It is his third Commonwealth title, and most likely his last.
Repacholi is stepping away from international competition after the Gold Coast Games to spend more time with his family.
On the evidence of his performance at Belmont, he’s got plenty of good shooting left in him. And having shelved retirement plans after the past two Olympics, it’s hard to totally believe him.
“I have travelled the world and I’ve had a great time doing it,” he said. “I know I’ve got plenty of good left in me but I need to spend more time with the family.
“Family’s more important right now.
“It’s a huge financial sacrifice as well. I took a heap of time off work, you never have normal holidays, anything.
“To win gold, it’s all worth it. That’s why we do it.”
Repacholi said his trademark lucky rainbow socks – given to him by wife Alex before Glasgow – were “seeping through” his skin yesterday as he produced a vintage performance that more than made up for missing the podium in his other event, the 10m air pistol. “It’s f---ing awesome,” he said. “I came here for two, but I got one. I can walk away with that and hold my head high.
“I shot a really, really good final. That’s excellent.”
Fellow Australian shooter Emma Cox coughed up a gold medal, losing a tense shoot-off with India’s Shreyasi Singh in the women’s double trap.
The country Victorian went into the final round with a whopping seven-point lead and needed to hit only 19 of her last 30 targets to ensure gold.
But she buckled under pressure, falling one short to finish level with Singh on 96 out of 120 targets and then was the first shooter to miss in a suddendeath finish and had to settle for silver.
The 25-year-old said she had no idea where the scores sat and blamed bad light and increased wind for her late misfires.
“It went really, really dull and the wind picked up a little bit so the targets were going a bit flatter,” she said. — AAP