A controversial refereeing call has seemingly cost Olympic silver medallist Natalie Rooney a spot in the finals of the trap shooting at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Rooney struggled in the opening two rounds with scores of 20 and 22 out of 25 to sit towards the bottom of the 14 strong field.
She scored 24 out of 25 in the third and final round which put into a four way shoot off for the last three finals berths but she missed out.
Natalie Rooney in action at Rio. Photo: AFP
"I shot a really good last round and fought hard in the shoot-off, but things just didn't quite go my way. I've had a really up-and-down day.
"To not make the final is really gutting," she said.
"A 22 isn't so bad, but a 20 in the first round and then a 22 is not good enough.
"My last round was pretty near perfect. I just went out there saying 'just have fun' and enjoy it. I hadn't really in the first two rounds, so I made sure that I enjoyed it and whatever happened in the end of it, I just didn't think I really had a chance.
Rooney has questioned the refereeing and whether it was fair to all the shooters with her first shot in the shoot off being ruled ineligible as it wasn't taken during the time limit and she had to start again.
"So the referee is meant to say 'start' when I hop onto the mark, but she didn't. She called 'start' before I hopped on to the mark, so she started the time before I was on the mark," she said.
"If you saw, she wasn't starting the time for the Aussie girl until she was well on the mark, and probably then not for a couple of seconds, but I ran out of time, apparently.
"I don't know because I'm not looking at the time. She was in the wrong (the referee) because she is meant to call 'start'."
"It is (hard to take), you kind of feel like people are trying to stab you in the back a little bit, but I kept going and I'm happy with the way I finished the day. I wish I'd won it, but unfortunately I didn't.
Rooney wasn't the only Rio medallist to miss out.
Australia's Catherine Skinner who won gold in Rio failed to qualify for the final too.
