Hot shots Ben Llewellin and Mike Wixey certainly got their eye in at next year’s Commonwealth Games shooting venue in Brisbane as they both captured medals at the test event.
Llewellin led the way with his gold in the Men’s Skeet at the Commonwealth Shooting Championships, coming from 11th in qualification to beat England’s Jack Fairclough and Australia’s Paul Adams to the title with a world record equalling total of 59/60.
That equalled his joint world record set in taking the silver medal at the ISSF World Cup Final in New Delhi last month. Missing only one target, he tied with Italy’s Riccardo Filippelli on that occasion and eventually lost in a sudden death shoot-off.
This time the Haverfordwest marksman was in no mood to settle for silver and shot phenomenally well in the final to beat all his major rivals for the gold on the Gold Coast next April.
The experienced Wixey qualified for the Men’s Trap final in third place, but went one better in the final to strike silver. The 46-year-old from Abergavenny is hoping to return for a fifth successive Games with Team Wales next year.
Wixey – who went to the Games in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 and won bronze in the Clay Pigeon Trap (Pair) in Manchester in 2002 – finished just behind England’s Aaron Heading.
Fellow Welshmen Jonathan Davis was 18th and Lewis Owen 20th.
Craig Auden finished seventh in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol final, while Sian Corish finished ninth, a fraction outside the top eight qualifying places for the final in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions.