The home nations picked up a remarkable collection of medals in rifle shooting events at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018 – but Commonwealth domination goes to India, followed by host nation Australia.
In the Queen’s Prize Pairs, England’s Parag Patel and David Luckman take gold, Chris Watson and Gareth Morris of Wales silver and Alexander Walker and Ian Shaw of Scotland bronze. Luckman went on to take gold in the Individual Queen’s Prize and Patel bronze.
In Men’s 50m Rifle Prone, David Phelps of Wales takes gold, the silver medal goes to Neil Stirton of Scotland, and bronze to England’s Kenneth Parr.
Scotland’s Seonaid McIntosh takes bronze in Women’s 50m Rifle Prone and Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions, and England’s Dean Bale takes bronze in Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions.
Former BBC young sports personality of the year Amber Hill’s wins a silver medal for Women’s Skeet. In Men’s Skeet, Ben Llewellin of Wales takes silver and Gareth McAuley of Northern Ireland takes bronze.
The UK maintains a dominance in the sport of double trap it established with Peter Wilson’s gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics. In Men’s Double Trap, David McMath of Scotland takes gold at the Commonwealth Games and Tim Kneale of the Isle of Man takes silver. In Women’s Double Trap, Linda Pearson of Scotland takes bronze. The Olympic Games has since dropped double trap in a controversy that saw some in the Olympic movement call for the replacement of all ‘projectile’ sports with laser events.
In Men’s Trap, Michael Wixey of Wales takes gold and England’s Aaron Heading silver. In Women’s Trap, Kirsty Barr of Northern Ireland takes silver and Sarah Wixey of Wales takes bronze. Laetisha Scanlan of Australia set a new Commonwealth Games record of 38 ex50 to take gold.
England’s golden couple of trapshooting, Ed and Abbey Ling each ended in fourth place in Men’s and Women’s Trap, which will lead to many discussions over breakfast about which of them is best.
England wins a pistol shooting medal, even though the UK government restricts handgun ownership. Sam Gowin wins bronze in the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol.
Top shooting nations for gold medals at the Commonwealth Games are India and Australia. Wales is third in the medal table.
| Shooting medal table | Team | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total medals |
| 1 | India | 6 | 4 | 5 | 15 |
| 2 | Australia | 3 | 5 | 1 | 9 |
| 3 | Wales | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 4 | Cyprus | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| 5 | Singapore | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 6 | England | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| 7 | Scotland | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| 8 | Bangladesh | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | Northern Ireland | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 10= | Isle of Man | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 10= | Canada | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12= | Malaysia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 12= | Malta | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
It’s bad news for Birmingham. The number of medals won by home nations – 10% of their entire medal haul (mean average = 6%) – embarrasses the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, which has dropped all shooting events. Birmingham’s decision is thought to be political – city officials are ashamed that Birmingham dominated the world’s gun trade for two centuries and has its own Gun Quarter.
India is threatening to boycott the Birmingham games because it will not hold shooting. More than a quarter of the medals India won at Gold Coast 2018 were in shooting events. Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland each won around 15% of their total medal haul in shooting events. England won 6% of its medals in shooting events. Both the Isle of Man and Bangladesh won its only medals in shooting.
Following Birmingham’s decision, the British government announced in the House of Commons that it wants to see a Commonwealth shooting competition at the Bisley ranges in the UK alongside the Birmingham games. Bisley, outside London, hosted the Manchester Commonwealth Games shooting events in 2002. However, then London mayor now UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson passed over an upgrade of Bisley as a venue for the London 2012 Olympics, instead choosing to spend £25 million on temporary facilities at Woolwich and a further £5 million taking down the facilities, leaving no legacy for British shooting sports.
Birmingham may change its mind and decide to host shooting events.
Here is a film about Bisley’s new pistol range:
Full results, Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games
Men’s 10m Air Pistol
Jitu Rai, India ?
Kerry Bell, Australia ?
Om Mitharval, India ?
Full results
Men’s 10m Air Rifle
Dane Sampson, Australia ?
Abdullah Hel Baki, Bangladesh ?
Ravi Kumar, India ?
Full results
Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol
Anish, India ?
Sergei Evglevski, Australia ?
Sam Gowin, England ?
Full results
Men’s 50m Pistol
Daniel Repacholi, Australia ?
Shakil Ahmed, Bangladesh ?
Om Mitharval, India ?
Full results
Men’s 50m Rifle Prone
David Phelps, Wales ?
Neil Stirton, Scotland ?
Kenneth Parr, England ?
Full results
Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions
Sanjeev Rajput, India ?
Grzegorz Sych, Canada ?
Dean Bale, England ?
Full results
Men’s Skeet
Georgios Achilleos, Cyprus ?
Ben Llewellin, Wales ?
Gareth McAuley, Northern Ireland ?
Full results
Men’s Trap
Michael Wixey, Wales ?
Aaron Heading, England ?
Brian Galea, Malta ?
Full results
Men’s Double Trap
David McMath, Scotland ?
Tim Kneale, Isle of Man ?
Ankur Mittal, India ?
Full results
Women’s 10m Air Pistol
Manu Bhaker, India ?
Heena Sidhu, India ?
Elena Galiabovitch, Australia ?
Full results
Women’s 10m Air Rifle
Martina Lindsay Veloso, Singapore ?
Mehuli Ghosh, India ?
Apurvi Chandela, India ?
Full results
Women’s 25m Pistol
Heena Sidhu, India ?
Elena Galiabovitch, Australia ?
Alia Sazana Azahari, Malaysia ?
Full results
Women’s 50m Rifle Prone
Martina Lindsay Veloso, Singapore ?
Tejaswini Sawant, India ?
Seonaid McIntosh, Scotland ?
Full results
Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions
Tejaswini Sawant, India ?
Anjum Moudgil, India ?
Seonaid McIntosh, Scotland ?
Full results
Women’s Skeet
Andri Eleftheriou, Cyprus ?
Amber Hill, England ?
Panagiota Andreou, Cyprus ?
Full results
Women’s Trap
Laetisha Scanlan, Australia ?
Kirsty Barr, Northern Ireland ?
Sarah Wixey, Wales ?
Full results
Women’s Double Trap
Shreyasi Singh, India ?
Emma Cox, Australia ?
Linda Pearson, Scotland ?
Full results
Queen’s Prize Individual
David Luckman, England ?
Jim Bailey, Australia ?
Parag Patel, England ?
Full results
Queen’s Prize Pairs
Parag Patel + David Luckman, England ?
Chris Watson + Gareth Morris, Wales ?
Alexander Walker + Ian Shaw, Scotland ?
Full results
