Already-qualified Amber Hill won a silver medal at the World Championships (Shotgun) in Osijek, Croatia, but no athletes reached the Paris 2024 Olympics in the Skeet competition.
The top four athletes in both the Men’s and Women’s Skeet competition would qualify, with at most one per NOC and the stipulation that those already qualified could not earn another place.
With Hill already qualified, any athlete qualifying in the Men’s Skeet event would ensure that we entered the Mixed Skeet event as well (there is no separate qualifying for this, instead any country with at least one man and at least one woman qualifies a place: two of each warrants two places). Ben Llewellin, Arran Colin Eccleston, and Jack Fairclough entered qualifying for GB. There would be 125 shots, and the top eight would qualify a place. Llewellin was the highest performing Brit, in 26th with 120 hits, with Fairclough in 36th with 119 and Eccleston in fiftieth with 117. This was an incredibly high-quality event and they will get other chances to qualify.
On the women’s side, Alexandra Anne Skeggs and Emily Jane Hibbs were eligible to qualify: Hill also entered but could not qualify as she had already done so in the European Championships in Larnaca, Cyprus. Hill topped qualifying with 123 hits, while Hibbs was fourteenth on 117 and Skeggs 54th on 104.
Hill qualified for the ranking match, where she faced Slovakia’s Danka Bartekova, and American duo Samantha Simonton and Austen Jewell Smith. The top two after thirty shots would qualify, with fourth placed after twenty eliminated. After twenty shots Simonton led with eighteen, ahead of Hill on seventeen and Smith and Bartekova on sixteen; the Slovakian was eliminated due to her inferior qualifying performance. Hill hit her next ten to join Simonton in the final on twenty-seven hits, with Smith eliminated on twenty-four.
Hill and Simonton were joined by Italy’s Diana Bacosi and Slovakia’s Vanesa Hockova in the final. A champion would be declared after forty shots, with third- and fourth-placed shooters being eliminated after thirty and twenty respectively. After twenty it was Hockova that was eliminated on fifteen, with Bacosi leading on nineteen and Hill and Simonton on seventeen behind. After thirty, Bacosi still led with twenty-nine and Hill soldiered on with twenty-six after Simonton missed three of her last four for twenty-four. But Bacosi hit her next eight and it became mathematically impossible for Hill to catch her; thus a golden hit was declared and Bacosi was world champion, with Hill getting the silver. This would normally be enough for an Olympic place but as she had already qualified in Larnaca, the place was reallocated instead.
The next chance to see our skeet shooters in action will be the 2023 European Games in Poland. The next chance to see any shooters from GB in action is the World Championship (Rifle and Pistol) in Cairo, Egypt, taking place from 12-25 October.
GB Games 