Ling Secures Bronze

Ed Ling secured his first ever Olympic medal yesterday in Rio, picking up a Bronze medal in the Men’s Trap.

Following a tense sudden death shoot off to qualify for the Bronze medal match, the Taunton born shooter held his nerve to take home the Bronze.

Ling said: “It's been a long time coming." 

"The bronze medal match is really tough because you either medal or you go home with nothing, so there's a lot of pressure on you. Luckily despite missing my first target I managed to pick myself back up." 

"I felt like I had a bit of an edge because I had to shoot-off for the bronze medal match so I stayed in the moment." 

"It's great for shooting, it's another medal now and hopefully there's more to come this week. We have a great support team behind us thanks to funding from UK Sport and the National Lottery and we're all more than capable of picking up a medal for Team GB."

After two impressive performances during the qualifying rounds, Ed finished tied for second recording 120 ex 125 to progress with five other shooters to the semi-finals. 

With Josip Glasnovic from Croatia and Italian Giovanni Pellielo both shooting impressively in the semi-final to take the top two spots, Ed was left to battle it out for a place in the Bronze medal match.

David Kostelecky from the Czech Republic booked his place in the Bronze medal match with 13/15, leaving Ed tied with Ahmed Kamara from Egypt on 12/15, forcing a sudden death shoot off to determine who would be joining David. 

The dream appeared in doubt, when Ed, shooting first in the shoot off, missed a bird, but luckily Ahmed followed suit, allowing the shoot off to continue. From there Ed never looked back, with the pressure of the shoot off perhaps taking its toll on the young Egyptian shot.

With the momentum of the shoot off on his side, the Bronze medal match proved to be a much more straightforward affair for Ed as he recorded 13/15 to defeat the 2008 Olympic champion David Kostelecky who finished on 9/15.

The Somerset shooter picked up Team GB’s third medal of the Games and will leave Rio to return to farming duties with his first Olympic medal at the third time of asking. 

He added: “Heading home now to help with the farm - it's harvest time and I don't expect dad's been doing much because he'll be busy watching me!”

"Next step for me will definitely be targeting Tokyo. My younger brother Theo is a shooter, as is my wife Abbey and it'd be a family dream to all go to the Olympics and compete for Team GB together."

The Gold medal match proved to be far more dramatic than the Bronze. After both shooters recorded 13/15, Glasnovich managed to hold his nerve to see off Pellielo. The Olympic heartache continues for the Italian shooter who has now finished runner-up in the Men’s Trap three times.