South Australia's Jack Rossiter snapped Dane Sampson's 50m Rifle Three Positions winning streak when capturing the Target Rifle Australia National title at the Shepparton Small Bore and Air Rifle Club today.
Sampson had won all four 50m Rifle Three Positions events to date in the 2021 Performance Series until Rossiter, his fellow Tokyo Olympic team-mate, climbed above the Queenslander in today's final.
Rossiter tallied 458.1 points to outpoint Sampson (456.3 points) and claim the gold medal, with Victoria's Michael Davis (442.5 points) earning the bronze medal.
Sampson held a slender 0.6 point lead with three shots remaining, but Rossiter shot brilliantly peeling off impressive scores of 10.5 and 10.4 before placing an exclamation mark on his victory with a perfect last shot of 10.9.
Rossiter entered the final on a positive note after topping the qualification round with a season best score of 1166 points – three points higher than Sampson (1163 points) and four ahead of Davis (1162 points).
The final was a mixed gender event after the morning men's and women's qualification rounds.
In the women's qualifying event, Tori Rossiter (1154 points) narrowly eclipsed Victoria's Elise Collier (1153 points) and South Australia's Katarina Kowplos (1136 points).
The Championships will continue tomorrow with the men's and women's 10m Air Rifle events.
