Silver for GB’s Rutter in skeet shooting controversy

Great Britain’s Amber Rutter had to settle for silver in a dramatic and controversial final of the women’s skeet shooting.

The 26-year-old finished in a tie of 55 shots out of 60 targets with Chile’s Francisca Crovetto Chadid.

They went to a shoot-off and were still tied after three rounds but, in a moment of contention, Rutter was called to have missed a shot which slow motion replays appeared to show she hit.

She contested the call, but shooting’s version of a video assistant referee (VAR)/Hawkeye is not in use at the Olympics and the judges did not overturn the decision.

Crovetto Chadid, 34, struck with both her next shots to make history and clinch her country’s first ever shooting gold medal.

But BBC commentator Rory McAllister said it was “a moment of controversy that will be talked about for days and weeks to come”.

“On the slow motion replay we saw the clay had been hit on the right-hand side by Amber Rutter, which is a hit,” he added. “You don’t have to hit them in the middle.”

Former world champion Rutter takes a medal, though, just over three months after giving birth to her first child, Tommy, on 25 April.

She was forced to miss the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 after contracting Covid-19 on the eve of the Games.

It is Team GB’s second shooting medal in Paris after Nathan Hales won gold by setting a new Games record in the men’s trap shooting final.

Austen Smith, of the United States, took the bronze with 45 shots.