Silver Skelhon rues one wayward shot
Matthew Skelhon celebrates with his silver medal
Matthew Skelhon was left to lament one shot after losing his Paralympic title and taking silver in the mixed R3-10m Air Rifle Prone SH1.
The 27-year-old from Peterborough finished a close second to Cedric Fevre of France, and blamed his seventh shot of the afternoon, a 10.2, which dropped his average just enough to deny him gold.
"I put in everything that I had to get the gold, but my seventh shot, which I scored a 10.2, came back to haunt me," said Skelhon, who shot 106.4 in the final for a 706.4 total, 0.3 behind Fevre. "Getting a 10.2 is one of those things, it's part of shooting."
It was a tense final with little to separate the shooters at the top of the standings.
"I have never seen so many 600s to qualify for a final," he added. "But the standard of the sport is getting higher and hopefully the profile of the sport will be higher."
Skelhon at least seemed to be enjoying himself at the Royal Artillery Barracks, pulling several faces at the onlooking cameras, even if he admitted one young spectator had not enjoyed the show.
"The atmosphere was great," he said. "I pulled the faces to get involved with the crowd. A home crowd can be daunting, but I pulled through it, although I did hear a baby crying."
There was disappointment for Skelhon's team-mate however, with Canterbury's Nathan Milgate finishing 11th.
Earlier, Hereford's James Bevis took bronze in the Mixed R5-10m Air Rifle Prone SH2.
Bevis narrowly missed out on silver in a shoot-off with Raphael Voltz of France, with Ukraine's Vasyl Kovalchuk taking gold.
