Rooney fails to make final
Rio Olympics silver medallist Natalie Rooney has failed to make the women’s trap final at the Commonwealth Games.
The South Canterbury shooter was tied for sixth after the third and final qualification round on the Gold Coast yesterday, with her score of 66 shared by Australian Laetisha Scanlan.
With the top six advancing to the final, that prompted a shoot-off, where Rooney added seven to her score, but Scanlan added eight, and advanced.
Rooney, 29, was joined in missing out on the final showdown by Catherine Skinner, the Australian who pipped her to the gold medal in Rio two years ago.
Skinner finished eighth, with a score of 64.
Rooney began slowly at the Belmont Shooting Centre, shooting 20 of a maximum of 25 in her first round, and 22 in her second round.
A 24 in the third qualification round got her to the brink of advancing to the final, but it South Canterbury cyclist Shane Archbold will compete in the men’s road race at 2:30pm NZT today. wasn’t to be.
Sarah Wixey of Wales was one of three shooters to score 69 in qualification, alongside Abbey Ling of England and Kirsty Barr of Northern Ireland.
India’s Shreyasi Singh and Scotland’s Sharon Niven were the others to make the final, both scoring 67.
Rooney claimed a silver medal at the Rio Olympics, sparking a run of form that made her the No 1 women’s trap shooter in the world last year - the first time any Kiwi shooter had topped the world rankings in their discipline.