Australia must be a favourite country of Cypriot shooter Andri Eleftheriou to compete and fire a rifle. The two occasions she’s won gold medals for her country at Commonwealth Games, have both been in the land down under.
Earlier this week, Elftheriou won gold for her country in the women’s individual Skeet Shooting event, ( a clay target shooting event), at the Gold Coast Commonwealth games.
This followed her other gold medal winning performance 12 years ago at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, when as a 21 year old, she took out the same event. Speaking on her Facebook page, Eleftheriou said that winning her most recent gold medal at the Belmont Shooting centre on the Gold Coast, was:
“The end of another amazing, but difficult journey, where I had the honour to represent our beautiful Cyprus (…) One of the most significant moments of my career to put around my neck the gold medal,which seemed more shiny than usual,and to listen the unique sounds of our anthem.”
Joining Eleftheriou on the podium was her Cypriot compatriot Panagiota Andreou, who finished third with a Bronze medal, and Great Britain’s Amber Hill who took out the silver medal.
Eleftheriou hasn’t been alone amongst the Cypriot team to collect gold at these games. Joining her were veteran shooter Georgios Achilleos who won the Men’s individual Skeet Shooting event earlier this week. The 37 year old enhanced his remarkable record in the sport by winning yet another Commonwealth gold medal making it a gold medal win at each of the last four Commonwealth games. Like Eleftheriou, he took out the gold medal in Melbourne 2006.
The Gold Coast games have also yielded gold to Cypriot gymnast Marios Georgiou, representing his country for the first time at a Commonwealth Games. Georgiou performed impressively to take out two gold medals, one for Men’s Floor exercise discipline and the other for the Parallel bars discipline. The 20 year old also collected a bronze in the individual all –around event.