Skeet, Women

The women’s shotgun events started on the third day with the skeet event. For the first time, the women’s skeet event was held over two days as the format of the qualification round was changed to the same format as the men’s event. Both now had 75 shots on the first day and 50 shots on the second day for a total of 125 shots in the qualification. The format of the final was also changed again, with six shooters qualifying for a final of six rounds with 10 shots each, with the lowest shooter eliminated after every round beginning from round two.

The world record holder for both the qualification round (124), tied with Amber Hill, and the final round (59) was Wei Meng who finished fourth in this event in Rio and won silver at the 2019 World Shotgun Championships. Both the reigning 2019 World Champion Diana Bacosi, and the reigning 2019 World Junior Champion Zilya Batyrshina competed in Tokyo. The 2018 World Shooting Championships saw a clean sweep with Caitlin Connor, Kim Rhode and Amber English of the United States, but of the three, only English could compete in Tokyo. Also absent in Tokyo was Amber Hill, who tied the world record for the qualification rounds in March 2021 and led the world ranking. Sadly, she contracted COVID-19 shortly before travelling to Japan.

Wei won the qualification round by equaling her own world record with 124, missing only one target. Bacosi finished second with 123, and English was third with 121. These three also occupied the medal positions after the final, starting from zero. The qualification places fourth to sixth were determined in a shoot-off, and the ranking was important for the final as the lowest placed was eliminated in the case of a tie. English was the last to miss a target in the final with her 16th shot but Bacosi was always close behind and took the lead after 30 shots. With the 44th shot English re-took the lead and went on to secure the gold medal with her 59th shot with Bacosi winning silver and Wei settling for bronze.Also participating in this event was the first ever female shooting competitor for Senegal, the Italian-born Chiara Costa.