Laetisha’s No. 1 with a bullet

By Jarrod Potter
BERWICK area shooter Laetisha Scanlan has shot her way into Olympic consideration with a come-from-behind victory in Serbia.
In the European Grand Prix, Scanlan, 21, took out the women’s trap event, shooting a qualifying score of 71 from 75, before hitting 23 targets in the final to win with a total of 94.
Scanlan, a gold medallist at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games in the women’s trap pairs, is elated with her victory in Serbia considering she only entered the event on a whim.
“The Australian team went over for a warm-up before the world championships, to get used to the ground we were shooting on,” she said.
“We entered the European Grand Prix for a bit of competition.”
Scanlan trailed Great Britain’s Charlotte Kerwood by two targets heading into the 25-shot single-barrel final but took out the event by two shots.
“There were a few good competitors there; one had won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, so it wasn’t an easy competition, but I just took it at my stride and shot one target at a time and managed to win it,” she said.
Scanlan finished up a bachelor of communications at Monash University last year, and is taking a break from study to focus on her shooting and qualifying for next year’s London Olympic Games.
She will now prepare for an Australian Grand Prix event in Sydney this month and the ISSF World Cup in Maribor, Slovenia, from 7 to 16 July, which serves as the next opportunity to win quota places for the Olympics.
“It’s a long process to qualify,” Scanlan said. “It started in January this year, and goes to March next year. It’s based on world rankings and Australian ranking and depends on how you place in international competitions throughout the qualifying period rather than just one qualifying event.
“At the moment I’m equally ranked first with another girl in Australia and ranked 23rd overall in the world,” she said.