University honours modest marksman who took gold

Trap shooter Bob Braithwaite chalked up a record-equalling score to triumph at the Games, seeing off the finest military shots from both sides of the Iron Curtain.

But the modest star, who celebrated his win with a cigarette and took the first available flight home, insists it was "just another competition".

He has now been honoured by his former university, the University of Edinburgh.

Recalling the moment he scooped the gold, Braithwaite, now 84, said: "There was no celebration, nothing at all.

"They weren't expecting anyone but the Italians or Americans to win, so we had to wait until they could get a recording of the national anthem to play.

"We waited for ages and people got so bored that they'd all gone. There was a very small accumulation of people to see me get my medal, which didn't bother me in the slightest.

"It was just another competition."

Braithwaite, who lives near Lancaster with his wife Kathleen, said he was "very lucky" to win gold and maintains he never went into competitions to win.

"All I was competing against was that target," he said.

"It didn't matter what the competition was, whether it was the Olympics, Worlds or anything else. All I wanted to do was break every target.

"If you broke every target, you won, and that was the end of the story."

Braithwaite started shooting at a young age to help with pest control on his parents' farm in Arnside, Cumbria.

He developed his love of a variety of sports at the University's Royal School of Veterinary Studies, from which he graduated in 1947.

His busy life as a vet in Garstang, near Preston, left him little time for training in clay shooting.

"It was very difficult at times," he said.

"Sometimes I would do some work on a Sunday morning and then go 100 miles to a shoot after I'd finished work.

"When the competition was overseas, I would go as late as possible for the practice day and catch the first flight home."

Braithwaite, with the help of local priest, installed a trap at his family's old farm to help him fit in some training around work.

He entered his first competition in 1958 and was picked for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, where he came seventh.

The trap event at Mexico involved 200 targets over eight separate stages.