Royal training takes Briton to shooting gold

Crack shot Peter Wilson -- trained by a member of Dubai's royal family -- grabbed Great Britain's first Olympic shooting gold in 12 years Thursday, revealing funding woes almost forced him to give up. The world record-holder thrilled packed galleries at the Royal Artillery Barracks, hitting 188 targets out of 200 to win the double trap, with Sweden's Hakan Dahlby taking silver and Russia's Vasily Mosin winning bronze. The towering Wilson took up double trap in 2006 and is trained by Sheikh Ahmed al-Maktoum, a member of Dubai's royal family and gold medallist at the 2004 Athens Games. The 25-year-old was impressive in qualifying in first place for the final, with 143 hits out of 150, but faced fierce competition in the final, involving a further 50 targets. Russia's Mosin, who took bronze after a shoot-off, put huge pressure on Wilson but the red-capped Briton, standing six feet six inches (1.98m) tall, held his nerve to hit 45 targets and claim gold, two clays clear of Dahlby. Wilson admitted he felt under intense pressure as he saw his lead cut to just one clay at one point."Of course you're trying not to focus on it too hard but you're just going through my technique," he said. "I spoke in depth with my coach, Sheikh Ahmed and we made a plan. I felt I tried to execute it as well as I could. "Of course, things are slightly out of your control when you're actually in that environment. I did know that everything got quite close during the middle and then I got a bit further ahead towards the end. "But dropping a complete pair wasn't exactly in the plan. I think everyone got a little bit more nervous certainly, so did I." Wilson, who gave up working on the family farm six months ago, described the past few years as an "incredible journey", saying funding problems had threatened his career before al-Maktoum stepped in to become his coach. "I started shooting double trap six years ago and I was very fortunate, had a lot of success very early on. Then after 2008 I lost my funding. Ahmed al-Maktoum came on board and began to coach me and really from that point onwards I regained my funding (from UK Sport). "That's a tough point.... If you're trying to be an elite athlete and you have no one helping you financially it's a really, really tough place to be and you do contemplate giving up and there are lots of things you think about." "I started working in a pub to try and cover my costs," added Wilson, who pursued an interest in shotgun shooting after a serious snowboarding injury to his shoulder, for which he still needs to do daily exercises. "That really wasn't possible. Late nights and early mornings just destroy the shooting." Self-confessed sports fanatic Wilson, who said he had not received funding from al-Maktoum, goes to Dubai for a period of concentrated training each February but does the bulk of his training in Britain. In bright and breezy conditions, every shot by Wilson, who wants to set up a business around shooting that funds him and enables him to continue the sport, was cheered by the packed stand, including the watching Princess Anne. Wilson is the first medallist in shooting for Britain since Sydney in 2000 when Richard Faulds, who failed to make the final on Thursday, won gold in the same event. Britain also won a silver that year in men's trap. In double trap, two targets are released simultaneously from trap machines, travelling at different heights and angles. A round consists of 25 doubles. The shooters fire one shot at each target. After six days of shooting competition China, the United States and South Korea lead the way on two golds apiece. China have won the most medals overall.