Australia's Skinner wins women's trap gold

Australia's Catherine Skinner beat Kiwi Natalie Rooney to win the women's trap Olympic title on Sunday.

In the gold medal match at the Deodoro range, Skinner missed three of the 15 targets to Rooney's four to prevail 12-11.

American Corey Cogdell ended up with bronze to replicate her third place in Beijing in 2008.

Skinner's expert shooting swelled to three Australia's gold medal tally after Saturday's brace in the pool.

The 26-year-old from Mansfield booked an automatic ticket to the final from the six-shooter semi-finals.

Rooney joined her there after a sudden death shoot off with Cogdell, who got the better of Spain's world champion Fatima Galvez in the bronze medal match.

In a carnival atmosphere with spaghetti western music piping out from the loudspeakers, Skinner's double barrel shotgun proved the most adept at hitting the fluorescent orange targets which when hit exploded leaving a plume of purple smoke hanging in the air.

Figuring amongst the finalists was defending Olympic champion Jessica Rossi.

But the Italian police officer was unable to repeat her arresting London 2012 performance, finishing sixth.

Earlier, qualifying had proved an inhospitable place for Ray Bassil.

The world number one turned up with great hopes of supplying Lebanon with its first gold medal in Olympic history, but the 27-year-old failed to make the final cut.

She was in good company, with Finland's Satu Makelanummela, champion in Beijing in 2008, also given the afternoon off.

For Rooney, despite missing out on the title, silver will have gone a long way in supplying compensation for her unhappy London Games fate, when she was selected and then removed from the New Zealand squad after one of her teammates, rifleman Ryan Taylor, successfully challenged her place.