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Nathan Hales kept his head while all around him lost theirs to claim a nerveless Olympic shooting gold. In a sport of movement, action, and split-second timing, Hales was the iceman in searing near 40-degree temperatures in Chateauroux, over 200 miles south of Paris.
Rivals wilted but he stayed mentally and physically strong - smashing the Olympic record in the process as friends and family, including wife Charlotte, a double Olympian, watched silently on before exploding with joy.
Hales’s success was Great Britain’s first Olympic shooting gold in 12 years, after Peter Wilson’s win in the double trap at London 2012, and the first in this discipline since Bob Braithwaite in 1968.
He kept his composure during a flawless qualification, as the 11cm targets whizzed 20 metres above his head at 40mph.
And in the six-man final he started with 15 perfect shots and concluded with 18 - his two misses putting him four ahead of nearest rival China’s Qi Ying, while Guatemala’s Jean Pierre Brol Cardenas completed the podium, his nations second ever Olympic medal.
“It was very intense and there were a lot of nervy moments but you don’t get better than an Olympic gold and an Olympic record,” he said, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games.
“I tried to keep everything as we always do and treat it exactly the same as any other event and enjoyed every second of it. I knew I had a bit of buffer over the others so that was a great comfort, but you need to focus on yourself and not think about the others.
“It was very tight. I just stuck to my routine and followed my process. I do some sports psychology work, so I stuck to my breathing and trusted myself. I didn’t realise it was an Olympic record until someone mentioned it.
“It’s the result of a lot of hard work and training. I was just trying to knock them down one at a time. I wasn’t worrying about the score.
“I’ve already had loads of messages from people watching at home on television, we’re not really used to that in shooting, I’m glad they got a chance to experience it.”
It was thanks to a silver at the World Championships in Osijek two years ago that Hales secured his quota spot for Paris.
Since then, he has hit top form by breaking the trap world record in Lonato in last year’s ISSF World Cup and arrived here ranked second in the world.
“I would follow my dad around the country as he competed, carrying his gun, carrying his bag, I just watched and learned,” he added.
“When I was big enough and old enough, I started having a go here and there and then progressed to shooting full competitions as a young kid.
“I decided I wanted to follow the Olympic path around ten years ago, so I got involved with the British Shooting pathway.
“I’ve never looked back. I’ve travelled the world shooting and competing. We all love that feeling of winning and doing well. It’s the pressure, the grit and the fight that really drives you.
“To be selected for my first Olympics was an amazing feeling, to win a medal was beyond my dreams, to win a gold medal, it’s just very hard to take in.”
Hales laughs at suggestions he and Kerwood are shooting’s Posh and Becks and admits he’s not yet passed on his love of the sport to his six-year-old son.
“He’s not very interested,” Hales added. “We try to teach him, but the attention span doesn’t last very longand you need a lot of patience for shooting.”
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