Shoulder injury led Wilson to golden glory

The 25-year-old farmer’s son from Dorset led from start to finish at the Royal Artillery Barracks.

Wilson, the world record holder and world No 2 in the event, was three points ahead going into yesterday afternoon’s final after three qualifying rounds in the morning.

In a tense final shoot-out, Wilson missed five shots, including a double as he closed in on gold.

But his opponents could not take advantage and the Briton eventually finished two clear of Sweden’s Hakan Dahlby with a total score of 188 out of 200 shots fired.

Wilson only took up competitive trap shooting in 2006 after a shoulder injury suffered while snowboarding prevented him from playing squash and cricket.

He smashed the world record in Arizona in March, scoring an incredible 198, and is Britain’s first shooting medallist since Richard Faulds won gold in the same event in Sydney 12 years ago.

Wilson needed one hit from the final two targets but nailed both before falling to his knees in tears. A capacity crowd gave the new 
Olympic champion a standing ovation before he climbed into the first row of seats to greet his mother and tearful girlfriend Michelle.

Dahlby took silver while, behind the celebrations, Russian Vasily Mosin won bronze after a shoot-off with Kuwaiti Fehaid Aldeehani.

Wilson is coached by Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum, the Olympic gold medallist in the same event at Athens in 2004 and a member of Dubai’s royal family.

Wilson thought his mentor would not be able to be present due to health problems but he made the journey to London.

“He was confident (yesterday),” said Sheikh Ahmed. “He wasn’t confident a week ago.

“He was worried about the fans, shooting at home and that he had to win it.

“I told him ‘if you are planning to win it you are not going to win it’.

“He had a job to do, and the job is about technique. We had to focus on that, (but) it was hard.”

Wilson struggled to put the feeling of being an Olympic champion into words.

“It’s really weird to say that,” he said. “I’m an Olympic gold medallist.”

He added: “It meant a huge amount. It’s really, really difficult. I’ve watched us win a couple of gold medals and another number of medals and you watch these guys talking after and they say ‘it’s just impossible to talk about it’ and it really is.

“It was an emotional rollercoaster for me from start to finish.”

He had special thanks for his coach, saying: “There is no doubt I would not be here today if it wasn’t for him.

“A massive thank you to him.”