Olympics-Shooting-Spain wins its first Tokyo gold in new trap mixed event

Fatima Galvez and Alberto Fernandez won Spain's first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday with victory in the final of the new trap mixed team event at the Asaka Shooting Range. The Spaniards smashed 41 of the 50 targets in the gold medal match, one more than tiny San Marino's Gian Marco Berti and Alessandra Perilli, who won her country's first ever Olympic medal with a bronze in the women's individual event on Thursday.

Fatima Galvez and Alberto Fernandez won Spain's first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday with victory in the final of the new trap mixed team event at the Asaka Shooting Range.

The Spaniards smashed 41 of the 50 targets in the gold medal match, one more than tiny San Marino's Gian Marco Berti and Alessandra Perilli, who won her country's first ever Olympic medal with a bronze in the women's individual event on Thursday. Switzerland's Nina Christen won the gold in the women's rifle three-position event with an Olympic record score, just ahead of the Russian Olympic Committee's Yulia Zykova in silver. Fellow Russian Yuliya Karimova grabbed the bronze.

Galvez missed five of her first eight targets in the gold medal match, including the first three in a row, and needed a timeout. Fernandez was rock solid at the other end, however, and missed only one of his 25 targets, helping ensure the gold for Spain.

"It's so easy to compete with Fatima and it was like a dream for me, so I didn't feel the pressure of being in an Olympics game," Fernandez said. Fatima said she initially struggled to sight the targets.

"Because of the light, I didn't see the target nicely. But the rest of it was nice," she said. For San Marino, Perilli missed only two targets, but Berti could not match her consistency and the pair had to settle for the silver.

Americans Madelynn Bernau and Brian Burrows won the bronze in a shoot-off victory over women's trap champion Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova and fellow Slovak Erik Varga after both pairs had shot 42. A second U.S. team, which included women's trap silver medallist Kayle Browning, failed to reach the medal rounds.

Australian world champions Laetisha Scanlan and James Willett were also eliminated in the qualification round.