Diamond shocked to see hopes shot down
EVEN six-time Olympians get annoyed and change routine under the gun.
Michael Diamond admits he did it yesterday when he went from having a third gold medal in his hands to missing out on the dais altogether in the space of five shots.
Diamond blew it and the twotime gold medallist of 1996 and 2000 had the character to admit it.
He insisted after yesterday’s late crash when he plummeted from ‘‘ Mr Perfect’’ to fourth in the trap final he would definitely be there in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 to try for three but the reality is there will never be a better chance than yesterday.
After his world record-equalling perfection (125-from-125) in the preliminaries, he missed more targets (five) than any other shooter in the six-man final of 25 shots.
He was still in gold medal position when he missed the 21st target at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
On the 22nd shot, another miss. He was gone.
In through the generous door opened by Diamond s t r o l l e d Croatian Giovanni Cernogoraz, the youngest shooter in the field at 29 and a waiter who will now proudly hang the gold on the wall in the family restaurant in Zagreb.
Cernogoraz (146) won a shoot-off for gold from Italy’s Massimo Fabbrizi (146) while the faltering Diamond (145) lost a shoot-off with Kuwait’s military-trained Fehaid Aldeehan (145) for the bronze.
‘‘I anticipated where a target was going and I actually moved the gun before I saw the target,’’ Diamond, 40, confessed of his crucial miss on the 21st target.
‘‘I never, ever do that but I did there and I missed it.’’
The pressure was palpable in the final when shooters were allowed only one shot, rather than the two shots, if needed, of the preliminaries.
‘‘Here I am looking at possibly my third Olympic gold medal and all the guys who are competing in front of me, they’re world-class and they’re young, younger than me,’’ Diamond said.
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