British shooter Nathan Hales wins Olympic men’s trap gold. Guatemala gets its 2nd-ever medal

CHATEAUROUX, England (AP) — British shooter Nathan Hales kept his cool in the French heat to take Olympic gold in men’s trap shooting Tuesday, and Guatemala won only the second medal in its history with bronze.

Hales smashed clay targets and an Olympic record as he scored 48 out of 50 hits in the final. That’s five more than the previous Olympic best and one short of his own world record.

Hales had been neck-and-neck with China’s Qi Ying, but Qi had to settle for silver after he missed four of his last 17 shots and Hales finished on a streak of 18 hits in a row.

Jean Pierre Brol, the oldest shooter in the final at the age of 41, won the bronze for Guatemala’s first medal since race walker Erick Barrondo’s silver at the 2012 London Olympics.

Brol was on course for elimination but overtook Sweden’s Rickard Levin-Andersson for third place when the Swedish shooter missed three shots in a row.

The United States’ wait for a shooting medal at the Paris Olympics will continue after Derrick Mein placed fifth.

Serbia won the gold in mixed team 10-meter air pistol as Zorana Arunovic and Damir Mikec beat Turkey’s Sevval Ilayda Tarhan and Yusuf Dikec 16-14 in the final. Arunovic and Mikec hugged and fell to the floor together after making the winning shots.

It was the first Olympic medal of any kind for Arunovic, who is the world record holder in the individual 10-meter air pistol but had a history of near-misses at the Games. She placed fourth in 25-meter pistol in 2012 and fourth again in the team event with Mikec in Tokyo in 2021.

India’s Manu Bhaker won her second bronze medal of the Paris Olympics after she and teammate Sarabjot Singh won 16-10 against South Korea’s Lee Wonho and Oh Ye Jin in the bronze-medal match.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games