Cypriot shooter Georgia Konstantinidou secured the island’s sixth medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Monday after a picking up a silver medal in a tense finale against Australia’s Laetisha Scanlan.
Trap shooter Konstantinidou’s podium finish continued Cyprus’ dazzling run in the games which has now seen them collect six medals (two gold, two silver and two bronze) while at the same time showboating the island’s dominance in shooting following Georgios Achilleos’ gold medal finish in the skeet event.
Scanlan, 24, came from behind in the gold medal match and hit 13 of 15 targets to beat the 30-year-old Konstantinidou, who hit 12, at the Games’ shooting venue at Carnoustie yesterday. In the same event, England’s Caroline Povey beat New Zealand’s Natalie Rooney in a shoot-off in the bronze medal match after both women hit 12 of their 15 targets.
The medal haul for Cyprus doesn’t appear to end there either.
During Monday’s track and field events, high jumper Kyriakos Ioannou moved into today’s final after securing the qualifying leap of 2.20m after previously stumbling in his first attempt 2.11m. His compatriot Vasilis Konstantinou finished 17th in the same event missing out on a place in the final.
There was also success in the shot putt event with two Cypriot athletes, Konstantinos Stathelakos and Alexandros Poursanides, securing their place in this week’s final after clinching the qualifying result to go through. Stathelakos had scored with a throw of 66.17m while Poursanides scored 65.25m. Another Cypriot shot put athlete, Michalis Kolokotronis, scored 63.68m to finish 15th out of the 20 participants and miss out on the final.
In the 1,500m race, Natalia Evangelidou took 15th place but still secured a personal best time of 4:16.05.
Cyprus Weekly
