Suzy's gold

Balogh won the Olympic women's trap event, outgunning Maria Quintanal of Spain, while South Korea's Lee Bo Na won bronze.

Balogh is the first Australian woman to win a shooting gold medal.

She is also only the second Orange athlete to win an Olympic medal of any colour. Canoeist John Sumegi won silver in the 500m kayak singles at the 1980 Moscow Games.

Balogh and her rivals battled shifting wind gusts on the mountaintop shooting range outside Athens.

The Australian, an agricultural protection officer at the Department of Primary Industries, led after qualifying, hitting 66 of a possible 75 as the conditions kept scores down.

She followed that with 22 out of 25 in the final round for a total score of 88.

Quintanal won the silver with 84 points while the South Korean took the bronze with 83, coming from sixth at the start of the final.

Four years ago, Balogh was told she was too old and too lacking in talent to succeed in shooting. "It's amazing, I just feel great ... it's still whizzing by, I'm lucky not too many targets did," she said.

Until three months ago, Balogh was travelling four hours between Orange and her parents' home in Queanbeyan to practice.

In March, the 31-year-old injured her back five minutes before the Sydney World Cup and had to go to hospital with a protruded disc. "I haven't been shooting well. I had a bit of an injured back in March and my scores have been abysmal," she said.

But the intense wind, which has been causing havoc with the little orange clay targets at the shooting range, may have been her lucky break.

"I was hoping we'd have a bit of wind and bit of rain to bring the scores back to me," she said.

Balogh, who won bronze in the women's double trap pairs at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, said she was not planning a big celebration last night.

"(I'll celebrate) with a really long sleep," she said.

Balogh's gold follows Australian Adam Vella's bronze in the men's trap event on Sunday.

Balogh grew up in Queanbeyan and took up shooting at the age of 15 to spend more time with her father.

She was fifth in last year's trap event at the world championships.

The former Orange sportsperson of the year has little time to celebrate as she will compete in the women's double trap tomorrow.