Ben Llewellin returned from the recent World Championships in the Olympic Skeet discipline of Clay Pigeon shooting with a coveted silver medal and was only denied the gold medal after an epic sudden-death shoot out with the current Olympic champion Mikael Milchev of the Ukraine.
 
The talented clay pigeon shooter from Rudbaxton, representing Wales, stayed in Nicosia, Cyprus for two weeks and initially competed in the ISSF two day competition against the top 150 Olympic Skeet competitors from all around the world where he came sixth after rounds of 72 out of 75 and 45 out of 50 saw him narrowly miss the finals as a measure of how high the standard was.
 

Nicely set up for the top competition

 
“But it set me up nicely for the World Championships,” said Ben, “and after the first day I was handily placed in third after hitting 73 out of 75 clays from the eight stations provided to give different trajectories.
 
“The second day saw more windy conditions and increased the tension so I was relatively pleased with my score of 47 out of 50 on target, which took me into the last six competitors, who not only included Milchev but three world champions and a twice-Asian games Champion!”
 

Huge pressures lead to superb success

 
Ben eased his way through the semi-finals in front of a big crowd of almost 400 vociferous supporters to encounter Milchev and after 15 birds apiece they were still all square.
 
“I hit both my clays as we went into sudden death play-off but Milchev did the same – and I missed one clay before he successfully struck his brace so I had to settle for second spot.
 
“At first I was gutted but I gave it 100% and will learn a great deal from the experience for other huge events like this one!”