Overnight Australia's Penny Smith won the gold medal in the Women's Trap shotgun event at the ISSF World Cup in Doha, Qatar.
Only a couple of weeks after an Australian record breaking perfect performance of 125 out of 125 targets, Smith's nerves of steel got her through a tough competition to win her third individual World Cup gold medal against some of the worlds best including World and Olympic Champions.
Smith was the second highest qualifier, securing her spot in the semi finals. Of her qualification Smith said "The first day I ran the first 50 [out of 50] and shot 24 in the last round for a 74 out of 75 which was really good shooting. I then came out today and probably struggled a little bit this morning and had a 22 [out of 25] and then came back strong with a 24…and qualified second for the final."
Smith shot 23 out of 25 targets in her semi final and progressed to the four women medal match. With fourth place and the bronze medal decided, Smith was up against Tokyo Olympic gold medallist Zuzana Stefecekova from Slovakia to battle it out for the gold and silver medals. But the medal match saw no victory with both women equal on 28 targets requiring a sudden death 'miss and out' shoot off to determine who was taking home the gold.
Smith (middle) with Australian Team members (L to R) Laetisha Scanlan, James Willett, Mitchell Iles and Nathan Argiro
Of her down to the wire win Smith said "I shot a really good semi for a 23 and probably the medal match was a little but rough but it's never over until the last shots fired and obviously coming down to a sudden death shoot off. It was a little bit nerve-racking out there I guess and the nerves were rising but I just had to keep my composure and keep my routine and that's what I did."
Watching on from home in Camperdown in Victoria, one of Smiths biggest supporters and mentor mum Kim Smith said "Whilst watching from home it was exciting and nerve-racking and an amazing achievement."
Smith will now fly back to Australia where she will spend ten days before heading to Cyprus for the next World Cup.
