Amber Rutter crowned European Skeet champion in Greece

Amber Rutter is European Skeet champion. The Olympic silver medallist took gold for Great Britain at the ISSF European Championship Shotgun in Malakasa, Greece, hitting 34 targets in the final on 1 October to beat Italy’s Diana Bacosi, the Rio 2016 Olympic champion, by a single clay in a finish that went to the last station of the day.

How was the final won?

Rutter’s 34 edged out Bacosi’s 33 in a final that stayed alive to the last station, with Sweden’s Victoria Larsson taking bronze on 27. Bacosi arrived as one of the most decorated skeet shooters in the sport’s history, an Olympic champion at Rio in 2016 and silver medallist at Tokyo, and beating her by the narrowest margin available makes this title one of the hardest-earned of Rutter’s career.

It is also the kind of result that travels beyond the clay world. Rutter’s Paris story made her one of the most recognisable names in British shooting, and a European title won on a single clay against the Continent’s best is exactly the telling the sport needs in front of a general audience: skill, nerve and a young mother at the top of an Olympic discipline.

The win adds a senior European crown to the Olympic silver Rutter won at Paris 2024, a medal shot only months after the birth of her son, and confirms that her return to the top of the discipline has become a residency rather than a comeback.

Which young Shots medalled alongside her?

The British success in Greece ran deeper than the senior podium. Henry Lungley took bronze in the junior men’s Skeet final with 28, and Jessica Hambrook matched him with bronze in the junior women’s event on 27, a sign that the GB skeet pipeline behind Rutter is producing medallists of its own.

For clubs and coaches at home, two junior medals in one championship are the better long-term news: the shooters who will contest the podiums of the 2030s are already standing on Europe’s. Both juniors carry their results into next season’s selection reckoning.

What happens next?

The European title strengthens Rutter’s position at the head of GB’s shotgun squad as the cycle builds towards the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, with the World Cup series resuming in the new year. Full results from Malakasa, including every GB score across the disciplines, are on the ISSF’s results pages, linked below.