Olympics: Shooter Rhode makes US history

LONDON: World record-equalling shooter Kim Rhode earned a place in the US record books on Sunday after destroying the field to win women's skeet gold as China fired an ominous warning to their rivals.

Thunderstorms lashed the Royal Artillery Barracks throughout the day but the American took advantage of a dry spell to put on a flawless display in the final, hitting all 25 targets to take her overall score to 99 out of 100.

Earlier, as rain hammered on the roof of one of the temporary venues in south London, China's Guo Wenjun showed nerves of steel, coming from behind on the very last shot to successfully defend her 10m air pistol Olympic title.

Rhode's win means she becomes America's first individual medallist at five straight Olympics after medals at Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and Beijing.

China's Wei Ning was a distant second, winning silver with 91 hits. Danka Bartekova of Slovakia took bronze after a shoot-off.

Rhode, 33, won golds in women's double trap in Atlanta in 1996 and in Athens in 2004, taking bronze in the event in Sydney in 2000.

She switched to skeet full-time when women's double trap was discontinued as an Olympic event after Athens, and grabbed silver in the discipline four years ago in Beijing.

Rhode missed just one target out of 100, in the morning qualifying session, equalling the world record and setting a new Olympic mark.

Gold for Rhode, who will also entered in the trap, comes after flight problems forced her to miss her team's training camp in Denmark. Her four-month-old puppy even ate her plane ticket.

Earlier, protected from the elements, China won their second shooting gold of the Games, when Guo, with her final effort, shot a 10.8, just 0.1 points short of a maximum score, drawing gasps from the packed crowd.

That meant she overhauled France's Celine Goberville, who had led going into the last round. Goberville could only manage 8.8, putting her level on points with Athens 2004 gold-medallist Olena Kostevych of Ukraine.

In a shoot-off, Goberville recovered from her disappointment at missing gold and secured silver.

Ice-cool Guo, 28, who said her motto was, "Never give up", maintained she always felt she had a chance of gold going into the final shot -- even though she was trailing by 0.5 points.

Guo finished with a total score of 488.1, 1.5 points ahead of Goberville. (AFP)