By JARROD POTTER
BERWICK shooting duo Laetisha Scanlan and Lalita Yauhleuskaya blasted their way to Glasglow glory with both shooters earning medals at the Commonwealth Games.
Scanlan, 24, from Berwick, earned her second Commonwealth Games gold medal as she overcame a poor qualifying round that almost forced her from the competition at Glasgow’s Barry Buddon Shooting complex.
She only just scraped through into the finals after a shootout against Indian Shreyasi Singh.
Once past the qualifying hurdle, Scanlan excelled as she shot an amazing 14-out-of-15 in the semi-final to book her spot in the gold-medal shootout.
With her nerves steadied, she resumed her best shooting in the 15-shot finale to clinch the gold medal 13-12 over Cyprian Georgia Konstantinidou.
Talking with ABC Grandstand, literally moments before she stepped onto the podium to receive her medal, Scanlan was thrilled to have fought back to earn her second Commonwealth Games gold medal to go with her women’s trap pairs gold medal from the Delhi games.
“I came over here to do my best and I’m just really happy that I got the gold medal and bigger and better things to come,” Scanlan said in an interview with ABC Grandstand on Tuesday morning.
“I didn’t think I made the final – I came off my last round and my coach said ‘unfortunately you haven’t made it, go pack up your stuff’ so I went and packed up my gun and was ready to finish the day then all of the sudden he came back running after me and said ‘no actually you’ve got to shoot off to make the final’.
“I had to put my gun together and all that stuff and went and shot off and hit the target and the Indian (Shreyasi Singh) missed and I made the final and from there I felt no pressure because I qualified last and the finals go back to scratch.
“I was really happy with my performance – I’ve always been good with single barrel so I was quietly confident.”
Yauhleuskaya, 50, from Berwick, did not have an easy advance through qualifying either, forced to shoot-off in the semi-finals to make her bronze medal match.
She finished second for the 25-metre pistol qualification rounds with a score of 578, trailing Singapore’s Shun Xie Teo.
She advanced on a shoot-off of her own in the semi-finals to get past Teo – claiming a 1(4) to 1(1) victory to earn her chance to shoot for a bronze medal.
The former Commonwealth Games gold medallist calmly shot past Malaysia’s Alia Sazana Azahari 10-8 to claim the bronze medal in her fourth Commonwealth Games appearance.
