Ben Llewellyn, silver at the Shotgun World Cup in Cyprus
Ben Llewellyn has his first accolade of the season after winning skeet silver at the Shotgun World Cup in Cyprus.
The Welsh shooter took Ukrainian Mikola Milchev all the way to a shoot-off in the gold medal match, but he couldn’t do quite enough to secure top spot.
It’s a fantastic result for the youngster who was shooting in his first world cup and will be looking to use the 2016 season to take his shooting to the next level.
And the signs are positive after Llewellin shot 120 in the qualifying rounds to reach a semi-final where he held his nerve to shoot a perfect 15/15 to reach the gold medal match.
“I’m over the moon, to come away with silver in my first World Cup is really pleasing,” he said. “I’m really happy with the result.
“Last week at the Grand Prix I had a great first day, but the second day let me down, so I was determined to not let that happen again in Cyprus.
“On the second day here the conditions were challenging. By the time I got to my last round, it got tricky, but that played into my hands. The qualification scores were quite low and I got into the final in fourth position, then I went in with the mentality that I had nothing to lose.
“In the gold medal match I missed a pair early on which seemed to bring me back down to earth a little bit.
“When competing in qualifiers, I didn’t know the history of all the shooters, but as their names were introduced by the PA announcer prior to the final, I thought that’s a hell of line-up judging by their previous experience. That just gave me more motivation, though.
“Next for me? Well, it’s all down to selection now, we have a british qualifier coming up. Fingers crossed I’ll be selected for the next big competition in San Marino.”
Christopher Pratt and Michael Gilligan were also representing Team GB in Nicosia but were unable to reach the semi-final after shooting 114.