All three Gold Coast Commonwealth Games shooting gold medallists will feature for Australia in Tokyo after confirmation of their selection onto the Australian Olympic Team.

Triple Commonwealth Games gold medallists Laetisha Scanlan and Daniel Repacholi along with Gold Coast Games winner Dane Sampson head a 15-strong shooting team, of which 11 have previous Commonwealth Games experience.

43-year-old Dina Aspandiyarova makes her second appearance for Australia at the Olympics after competing in three Games for her native Kazakhstan.

The Queenslander won gold in the 10m air pistol pairs in her Commonwealth Games debut for Australia in Melbourne in 2006 an also won silver in Delhi four years later however she missed the team for Glasgow and the Gold Coast.

Skeet shooter Laura Coles won gold in her pet event in Glasgow in 2014 and was on the team on the Gold Coast, where she finished ninth, Coles will make her Olympic debut in Tokyo.

At 37, Repacholi is a veteran of four Commonwealth Games campaigns, debuting at Melbourne in 2006, he has captured three gold and three bronze medals in pistol events.

With his trademark beard and big personality, the father of two was a popular 10m air pistol winner on the Gold Coast and will join an exclusive club of Australian athletes when he lines up for his fifth Olympic team in Tokyo.

Scanlan celebrated her 28th birthday in style on the Gold Coast, shooting a Games record total to win a third consecutive trap shooting gold medal, defending the individual title she won in Glasgow to go with the pairs crown she won in Delhi in 2010.

Sampson won Australia’s first shooting gold of the Gold Coast campaign with his win in the 10m air rifle and will line up in his third Olympics.

Other Gold Coast medallists to shoot their way onto the team in Tokyo include 25m rapid fire pistol silver medallist Sergei Evglevski, who will make his Olympic debut and follow in the footsteps of his mother Lalita Lauhleuskaya, who competed in six Olympic Games for Belarus and Australia and won seven Commonwealth Games gold medals across the Manchester and Melbourne editions.

Evglevski was born in Belarus in 1997, a year before his family moved to Australia. When he was just a toddler his mother won bronze at the Sydney Games for Belarus before becoming an Australian citizen. He was named as the Australian flagbearer at the World University Games in Napoli, Italy last year.

Melbourne-based doctor Elena Galiabovitch won silver and bronze in 2018 in her first international finals in the pistol events and will return for her second Olympics after debuting in Rio.

The announcement of the 11 shooters adds to the twelve track cycling team members who have Commonwealth Games experience on the Australian Olympic Team for Tokyo.

Unfortunately, shooting won’t be on the program for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, however, a Commonwealth shooting and archery championship will be held in Chandigarh, India in January 2022.

2020 Australian Olympic Shooting Team

Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Australian Medal Tally

Australia finished the Gold Coast 2018 shooting program with nine medals overall: three gold, five silver and one bronze.

GOLD

Daniel Repacholi – Men’s 50m Free Pistol

Dane Sampson – Men’s 10m Air rifle

Laetisha Scanlon – Women’s Trap

SILVER

Jim Bailey – Fullbore Rifle Queen’s Prize

Kerry Bell – Men’s 10m Air Pistol

Emma Cox – Women’s Double Trap

Sergei Evglevski – Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol

Elena Galaibovitch – Women’s 25m Sport Pistol

BRONZE

Elena Galaibovitch – Women’s 10m Air Pistol