‘Dream’ silver for Rutter despite miss controversy

Great Britain’s Amber Rutter says it is a “dream” to come away with an Olympic silver medal, despite the controversial end to her gold medal bid in the women’s skeet final.

The 26-year-old finished tied on 55 shots from 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 or 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 clinch her country’s first ever shooting gold medal.

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 won silver just over three months after giving birth to her first child, Tommy, and was surprised afterwards by her husband, who had brought their son to Paris.

“It is just a dream,” she told BBC Sport. “The fact that I’m able to be a mum and come away with a medal for my country, I am on top of the world right now.”

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

“The fact that I am able to be here, I believe everything happens for a reason,” added Rutter. “It really was to prove a point and come back here and really chase down those medals.

“The fact that I am here now, Tommy with me and with an Olympic medal, I don’t know how it gets much better than this.”

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.