Sport
17 April, 2025
Smith adds to medal collection on world stage
PENNY Smith has won both a gold and a silver medal at the Buenos Aires ISSF World Cup.
The champion shooter won gold in the women’s trap event during what was the first World Cup of the 2025 season last week.
Smith shot a qualification score of 121 out of 125 targets and was the equal top qualifier alongside Italy’s Silvana Stanco.
With a finals berth confirmed, Smith and Stanco entered a sudden death shoot off to determine who would wear bib number one in the final.
Shooting five shots to Stanco’s four, Smith secured the premier bib which holds significance in determining elimination ties in the final.
“It was good to shoot 121 in trying (strong wind) conditions,” Smith said.
“The weather has been challenging for the past three days and it wasn’t much easier in the final.”
In the women’s final, Smith missed a few targets early on before demonstrating her competitive strength and determination to take the lead, only missing one target in the final 31.
She finished with a score of 44 out of 50 targets – two ahead of silver medallist Carey Garrison (USA).
“It was a solid final with the weather a challenge but I just had to keep working my way through,” she said.
“My back half of the final was really good.”
On the back of her strong individual trap performance, Smith combined with fellow Victorian Mitch Iles (who made the men’s trap final) on the final day of competition last Friday to win silver in the Trap Mixed Team event.
The duo was required to shoot 75 targets each across three rounds of 25 to combine a qualification score out of 150 targets.
At the end of qualification, Smith and Iles scored a total of 143, placing them equal second qualifiers with three other teams.
They then entered a shoot-off to determine which team would join Chinese Taipei in the gold medal match.
After an additional eight targets, Smith and Iles secured their spot in the gold medal match.
The second Australian team, comprising Kiara Dean and James Willett, finished qualification on 140/150 – placing them eighth.
In an extremely close gold medal match contest, and with just 10 targets for each team remaining, Chinese Taipei led 37 to 35.
With Smith and Iles hitting all 10 of their remaining targets, and Chinese Taipei missing two, both teams were level on 45 from a possible 50.
They then entered a sudden-death shoot off to determine who would take home the gold and silver medals.
The Australians missed their fifth target, finishing with a silver medal.
Olympic shotgun coach Renae Birgin congratulated Smith and Iles on their perform-ances.
“There was some incredible shooting done in tough conditions and both teams delivered a performance in the final worthy of a gold medal,” Birgan said.
“I’m incredibly proud of these two athletes for backing up their individual performances from the previous day. They gave it everything they had left and more.”
After a few short days rest, the Australian shotgun team then headed to Lima, Peru, for the start of the second World Cup of the 2025 season last Sunday.
