John Robert BRAITHWAITE

Bob Braithwaite made his Olympic début in 1964 when he placed seventh in the Clay Pigeon shooting. Four years later, at the Games in Mexico City, he became the first Britain to win an Olympic shooting gold medal for 44 years. At the 1968 Olympics, Braithwaite, a 42-year-old veterinary surgeon, was in second place at the end of the first day but hit all hundred clays on the second day to take the Olympic title with a score of 198 points out of a possible 200. On the first day, Braithwaite missed only the fifth and thirteenth clay, so this meant that he scored 187 consecutive hits, an incredible achievement considering that the clays came from traps at any height and angle and at speeds in excess of 100 mph. His daughter, Norine, was a nationally ranked middle distance runner but did not succeed in making the Olympic team.