New Delhi: Less than three months after he shot gold at the Paris Olympics with a record score (48/50), England trap shooter Nathan Hales will line up at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range in the capital, aiming to assert his supremacy in a competition he calls a “mini Olympics”.
The challenges will range from world-class competitors to nippy conditions, but having floored the best over the past few years – he won silver at the 2022 World Championships and broke the world record while winning gold at the 2023 Lonato World Cup – the 28-year-old will aim to end the year on a high. The competition starts on Sunday.
“This will be my first visit to Delhi and I am super excited. This year has been superb and I would like to end it well,” said Hales, who comes from a family of shooters and took to clay shooting as a five-year-old. After a short break post Olympics where he tended to his sponsorship and media commitments, Hales is easing back into competition.
Peaking twice in a space of three months can be draining, but the Olympics preparation took such a toll on him that Hales, a self-confessed perfectionist, has barely entered the range after the Games.
“Peaking will be a challenge, especially between two high-profile events bunched together. It’s not an ideal situation but it is what it is,” he said. The year-end event will also mark the start of a new Olympics cycle, which means Hales will be eager to start his long build-up to the 2028 Los Angeles on a positive note. It will also be an opportunity for him to try a new weapon – he will trade his Beretta DT11 for a more advanced Beretta SL2.
“I have had just four sessions in the range since Paris, which is not great but I needed some time off shooting. I like to prepare well for my events, I like my practice to be perfect. I am not in perfect shape game-wise for the World Cup Final. I guess in a mentally draining sport such as ours, it is important to strike a balance.”
Perfect balance is what he achieved at the Chateauroux Shooting Range in France where he beat China’s Qi Ying by four points in sweltering heat. Hales and Ying went past the Olympic record (43) but the Englishman got a handy lead after Ying missed his 34th and 35th attempts. Renowned for their unflinching temperament, the Chinese rarely misfire at big stages, but Hales’ trust in his “uncomplicated processes” saw him through.
“The Chinese are truly world class, and they have this huge supply of shooters who just keep winning,” he observed. “What perhaps worked for me was that I had beaten Qi last year in Lonato. Also, I was very, very focussed. I had done everything I could in terms of preparation, so much so that I didn’t shoot for 10 days leading up to Paris. It’s the kind of space that an athlete finds very rarely in his career. You can still win events, but very rarely do you enter that zone.”
Helping Hales in his search for Olympic success was his wife Charlotte Kerwood, a former Olympic shooter. A four-time double trap gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games, Kerwood was by Hales’ side as he chased perfection. “Her inputs were of great help. She has vast experience as an elite athlete, which means she can tell me what I can expect to feel in a position that I haven’t been in before.”