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Guernsey have taken gold and silver in the 10m Air Rifle final with the thinnest of margins between the pair, adding to an impressive shooting medal tally earned so far.
Guernsey’s Paul Guillou came top in the preliminary with a personal best score of 616.3, with team-mate Luke Malcic fourth after wobbling on his final two shots just under an hour before the final.
But the six non-elimination rounds were merely a formality as only eight competitors entered and eight are required for the final. Malcic came back strong and consistent to win the gold with just 1.9 more points than Guillou in the end.
In the break he said all he had to do was “chill out” and “forget everything that happened. It was good shooting up until my last two strings. And so just forget the last two strings.
“The biggest bit about it is just to know that all of the work I've put in, all of the training over the past 8 to 12 months leading up to this, It's all been worth it.
“Sixth place in the British Championship back in February to this, It's incredible.”
Pictured: Guillou was denied the gold he won back in Jersey, 2015. Credit: Rob Currie.
Despite taking home the silver for Guernsey, Guillou said his performance was simply “not good enough.”
“I just could not get the accuracy,” he said. “I shot my qualification - I shot my personal best - a fantastic score. I thought ‘I've got this’. It's a no brainer. But when it comes down to it, when you are up against people, it's a different ball game. You can’t recreate that in training and the margins are extremely fine. It's hard to gain the fractions, but easy to lose them.”
Third place went to the Isle of Wight.
Guillou won another silver medal along with his partner, Jack Hanca, in the 10m team Air Pistol around an hour later. The pair lost out on the gold to Gotland’s Morgan Johnasson Cropper and Pontus Nordgren.
Pictured: Malcic takes aim in the final.
Guillou and Malcic won gold in the team air rifle on day one of the Games, with Guernsey's Andrea Guillou and Amy Woodland coming third.
Malcic said his score in the individual competition was “much better” than the team event, with his partner doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
It’s his last competition in the Games: “On Wednesday I'm leaving to go to the UK for the British Full-Bore Championships. Hopefully I can replicate my success there as well."
Guillou has additional pistol events to come: “I've got my hopes for that because predominantly I'm a rifle shooter, but I have been doing well with the pistol so far. I could be up there. But again, it just depends on the day.”
Guernsey have so far clinched 15 medals in the shooting at the time of writing, the highest out of any sport for the island; seven gold, three silver, and five bronze.
Our Island Games update: Day 3 podcast:
Pictured (top): Paul Guillou (left), Luke Malcic, and Guy Moss.
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