Mick Gault

Michael Gault OBE (born 2 May 1954), is an English sport shooter. He has competed at the Commonwealth Games on six occasions winning eighteen medals, a record for athletes in any sport that he jointly holds with Australian shooter Phillip Adams, but has never been selected for the British Olympic team. Gault also won two ISSF World Cup bronze medals whilst representing Great Britain.

Personal life Gault was born in Sheffield and raised in Carlisle, Cumbria. He moved to Norfolk to work for the Royal Air Force as a radar engineer at RAF Marham. He is married to Janet and has two daughters and one son with five grandchildren.

Career

In May 1994, Gault set two British records at the National Pistol Association meeting at Bisley. In the free pistol event he scored 570 ex600, surpassing Paul Leatherdale's record of 572. He also raised David Levene's record for centre-fire precision pistol by four points with a score of 296 ex300.

Gault first competed at the Commonwealth Games during the 1994 event held in Victoria, Canada, representing England. He won three medals; gold in the men's free pistol with a score of 654.1; silver in the men's centre fire pistol, with a score of 581; and bronze in the men's pairs free pistol, where he and partner Paul Leatherdale scored a combined 1082.

At the 1998 Commonwealth Games held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Gault won four gold medals. He won the individual men's 50 metre free pistol and 10 metre air pistol events and partnered Nick Baxter to win the pairs competitions in the same two events.

In 2002 Gault competed at the Manchester Games in his home country. He won three gold medals, successfully defending his titles in the individual 50 metre free pistol, individual 10 metre air pistol and pairs 10 metre air pistol with Nick Baxter, as well as a bronze medal in the men's individual 25 metre standard pistol. Following his achievement Gault carried the England flag during the closing ceremony.

At the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, Gault won a further two medals taking his total in Commonwealth Games to 17. Competing with Nick Baxter he won silver in the 10 metre air pistol pairs and won bronze in the 25 metre standard pistol pairs alongside Iqbal Ubhi.

After the 2010 Games he announced his retirement from the sport, citing the media pressure surrounding his medal record attempt, but reversed his decision with the aim of competing at his first Olympics at the 2012 Games in London.

Gault returned to the England team for the 2014 Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow, Scotland. He led the 10 metre air pistol event after 13 shots but eventually finished third with a score of 176.5. The bronze medal tied him with Adams record of 18. however Gault holds 9 Golds to Adams holding 7 Gold. After being eliminated from the event he announced his retirement for the second time. On 25 December 2014 Gault suffered a minor stroke and has never shot since.