Going For Gold. 2.
We meet Ben Llewellin, shooter, in our second (of five), looks at Brits who are podium-bound for the Olympics.
Not fulfilling the stereotypical mould of your Barbour-jacket-wearing be-Labradored gunman, Ben Llewellin watched the Tokyo 2020 Olympics from his semi-detached home in Haverfordwest last time out. Having failed to qualify for the Games he was expected to medal at (by just one shot) the Welshman was unable to even look at a gun until well beyond the tournament’s close.
Considering retirement aged 26, in a sport that featured the oldest-ever Olympian (Oscar Swahn won silver aged 72 at the 1920 Summer Games), Llewellin said that he was, “Absolutely devastated at the time. After missing the target, everything just sank.”
An off-season swap to Italian gun manufacturer, Perazzi, brought with it a new technical set-up, contributing to changing fortunes ahead of Paris. Now a Commonwealth silver and European bronze medallist, the 29-year-old hopes to complete the set.
His best chance undoubtedly comes in the form of the skeet team event alongside Amber Rutter. Her two World Championships, four European Championships and one Commonwealth gold make her the most successful British shooter of all time. And the pair were crowned world champions of the event in 2022, each taking it in turns to shoot 50 clay pigeons on the bounce.
Rutter, by turn, was selected for Tokyo but also missed out on the Games after testing positive for Covid-19 just days before. The pair, Llewellin says, have “made a pact to right wrongs in Paris.”
Standing in the Welshman’s way of gold will be World numbers one and two, Italy’s Tammaro Cassandro and Gabriele Rossetti. The latter won gold in Rio, but both missed out on the podium in Tokyo and find themselves on a not-too-dissimilar arc of redemptive recourse.
Never suffering from a lack of sporting heritage, Llewellin’s dad David won the British Rally Championship in 1989 and 1990. Both times at the wheel of a Toyota Celica GT-Four.
Admittedly a slower watch, shooting presents its own sporting challenges. Llewellin junior may not be flying between hedgerows, but adding to his family’s petrol-based trophy cabinet through his endeavours at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre exists as no less of a test. By any means.