US shooter Rhode wins historic Olympic title

Shooter Kim Rhode missed just one shot out of 100 -- equalling the world record -- as she became America's first individual medallist at five straight Olympics with gold in the women's skeet Sunday. Rhode, an Olympic shooting medallist at Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and Beijing, dominated proceedings at London's Royal Artillery Barracks. China's Wei Ning won silver with Danka Bartekova of Slovakia taking bronze after a shoot-off. Rhode, 33, won golds in women's double trap in Atlanta in 1996 and in Athens in 2004, taking bronze in the event in Sydney in 2000. She switched to skeet full-time when women's double trap was discontinued as an Olympic event after Athens, and grabbed silver in the discipline four years ago in Beijing. After a bright start to the day in south London, storms swept across the temporary venue but the rain held off for the final, where Rhode finished with 99 hits out of 100 of the fast-moving clay pigeon targets. Wei was a distant second with 91 hits, while Bartekova was involved in a shoot-off for bronze after she finished level on 90 hits with Russia's Marina Belikova. Rhode had also won the qualifying competition, hitting 74 targets out of 75 to notch a new Olympic record. Skeet requires competitors to hit a clay target moving away from them. The top six shooters from the qualification go into the final, where they fire a further 25 targets, with the scores added to their qualifying tally. Rhode's build-up to the London Games was hit when flight problems forced her to miss her team's training camp in Denmark, and when her four-month-old puppy ate her plane ticket.