Amber Rutter takes silver in Olympic skeet final shoot-off

Former Claires Court School student Amber Rutter won silver in the Skeet Shooting event at Paris 2024 this afternoon (Sunday) but a controversial decision in the shoot-off with the eventual winner denied her a chance of the gold.

The 26-year-old – who gave birth to her first baby just three months prior to the Games – finished in a tie for the lead having made 55 of her 60 shots and went into a shoot-out for gold with Chile’s Francisca Crovetto Chadid.

 The pair were still tied after three rounds, but Rutter’s hopes of a gold medal floundered on a controversial moment when she appeared to have missed her target. However, slow motion replays showed that she’d nicked it.

The missed shot was contested and went to a video replay review – the equivalent to VAR or Hawkeye – however, the judges chose not to overturn the decision.

 Crovetto Chadid then struck with both of her next two shots to take the title and clinch her country’s first ever shooting gold medal.

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

BBC commentator, Rory McAllister, said it was a moment that would be talked about in shooting circles ‘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.”

Despite the controversy, Rutter celebrated her medal afterwards with her husband and young son, Tommy, having only given birth in late April.

 The silver medal is also a huge improvement on Tokyo 2020 which she was forced to withdraw from after contracting COVID just before the games.

It is the country’s second shooting medal at Paris 2024 after Nathan Hales won gold in the men’s trap shooting – setting a new Games record in the process