Nathan Hales won Britain’s third gold medal of the Olympics after storming to a surprise victory in men’s trap shooting in record-smashing fashion.
Despite winning a silver medal at the World Championships in Osijek, Croatia, in 2022, Hales was considered less of a medal bet than his team-mate, the Tokyo bronze medallist Matt Coward-Holley.
But while Coward-Holley fell away over two days of qualifications, Hales landed another gold for Team GB amid jubilant scenes.
He said: “The final was great and I’m so happy to get an Olympic record as well as winning the Olympics.
“I just try and keep everything as we always do and treat it exactly the same way I treat finals in training. I just push through and keep focused on what I’m doing, not on what other athletes are doing.
“It was a great support. Had loads of my family here and it was great to have them all here.”
But who is Nathan Hales and what is trap shooting?
A shooting dynasty
Hales, 28, from Kent, is making his Games debut. He is part of something of a shooting dynasty, having taken it up aged only five with his father, with both sides of his family also involved in the sport.
His partner is Charlotte Kerwood, 37, a four-time Commonwealth champion who represented Great Britain at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. They have two children, Hudson and Hattie.
Hales came through British Shooting’s pathway programme and has been mentored by the last Briton to win Olympic shooting gold, Peter Wilson, the London 2012 men’s double-trap champion.
Hales earned Team GB a spot at Paris 2024 when he finished second at the 2022 World Shotgun Championships, where he also won team gold and mixed team silver.
But it was a year ago when he really began to look like an Olympic-champion-in-waiting after setting a new world record of 49 out of 50 in a World Cup event in Lonato, Italy. His 48 out of 50 in the Olympic final smashed the previous Games record of 43.
Like diving medallists Noah Williams and Scarlett Mew Jensen, Hales suffered the untimely loss of one his mentors in recent years when Great Britain head coach and two-time Olympian Kevin Gill died suddenly aged 58.
What is trap shooting?
Trap shooting is one of three major disciplines in competitive clay pigeon shooting, along with skeet and sporting clays.
Trap is distinguishable by the targets being launched away from the shooter from a single “house” or machine compared with two “houses” crossing in front of the shooter in skeet.
Olympic trap involves greater distances and speeds in excess of 60mph. In the qualifying round, shooters face a total of 125 targets, 25 at five different stations (or standing positions). The top six move on to the medal round where they face 50 targets over five rounds, 25 in the first, five in the second, third and fourth, and 10 in the fifth. The lowest-scoring competitor is eliminated in each round.
Until 1992, Olympic trap was a mixed event before being replaced by a men-only discipline in 1996 and then separate men’s and women’s competitions.
Only one Briton has previously won the title, Bob Braithwaite in 1968, although Ian Peel claimed a silver medal in 2000 and Edward Ling and Coward-Holley won respective bronzes at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Coward-Holley also qualified for this summer’s Games but did not make the final. Wilson’s gold at London 2012 was in the now-defunct men’s double trap.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
