By David Nagel
Berwick shooter Laetisha Scanlan has done her local community proud but fallen agonisingly short of a first Olympic Games medal after finishing fourth in today’s Women’s Trap final in Tokyo.
The 31-year-old Scanlan, who finished fifth at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games behind her gold medal-winning team-mate, Catherine Skinner, looked set for a long-awaited medal after finding herself in a strong position in the six-strong field of finalists.
All shooters initially had 25 shots at the moving targets, with the finalist with the lowest score being eliminated from the final. The first to go was Scanlan’s Australian teammate Penny Smith, who hit the target with 13 of her 25 attempts.
The remaining five contenders then had an additional five shots each with a further elimination then taking place.
Scanlan held her nerve to fight off the challenge of Italy’s Silvana Stanco, leaving four finalists to battle it out for the three medal positions on the dais.
“Sometimes, it’s just one target,” Scanlan told the Gazette in a 2020 interview as she prepared for this year’s games.
And those words would prove prophetic, with Scanlan’s fate coming down to what would prove to be her last shot of the final.
A direct hit would see the three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist secure her dream Olympic medal, while a miss would hand the bronze to San Marino’s Alessandra Perilli, chasing her country’s first ever medal.
Scanlan was clearly disappointed after missing her final attempt, being eliminated, and handing Perilli the bronze.
Slovakia’s Zuzana Rehak-Stefecekova claimed the gold medal with Kayle Browning from the United States winning the silver.
