Success for Yauhleuskaya

Australia’s Belarus-born shooter, Lalita Yauhleuskaya, claimed her second success of the Games with victory in the women’s 25m individual pistol event today, but declared only three gold medals will completely ease last Friday’s disappointment in the 25m pistol pairs.

On day two at the Melbourne International Shooting Club, Yauhleuskaya could only manage silver and the 32-year-old mother of two reacted badly, storming off and refusing to talk to the waiting media.

She compensated for that loss with first place in the women’s 25m pistol and repeated the dose today with another triumph, but the succinct Yauhleuskaya said only victory in the 10m air pistol on Thursday will completely erase the memories of silver.

“Yes, but I need three gold.”

The triple-gold medallist from Manchester may be short on words, however, her gun does more than enough talking, as she topped the pool in the preliminary round before going on to win comfortably with 7.5 points to spare.

Yauhleuskaya’s teammate and partner in the pairs’ events, Pamela McKenzie, just missed out on silver, having to be content with bronze after an errant final attempt allowed Canadian Kim Eagles into second position.

“I was really disappointed with my last round because the previous round was a good one. But I’m really excited. I had no idea I could go this far. It’s fantastic,” McKenzie said.

Also this afternoon, Australia’s Michael Diamond is equal leader after the first two qualifying rounds in the Men’s trap at the Melbourne Gun Club.

Seeking his third consecutive Commonwealth gold in this event, Diamond and India’s Manavjit Sandhu both shot 49 of a possible 50 targets, with three more rounds to be completed before the final tomorrow.

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