Mixed trap at the Games of the XIX Olympiad
Gold medalist Bob Braithwaite
Venue	Vicente Suárez Shooting Range
Dates	18–19 October
Competitors	55 from 34 nations
Winning score	198 =OR
Medalists
Bob Braithwaite  Great Britain Thomas Garrigus  United States Kurt Czekalla  East Germany

Shooting at the 1968 Summer Olympics
Rifle
300 m rifle three positions	Mixed
50 m rifle three positions	Mixed
50 m rifle prone	Mixed
Pistol
25 m rapid fire pistol	Mixed
50 m pistol	Mixed
Shotgun
Trap	Mixed
Skeet	Mixed

The trap was a shooting sports event held as part of the Shooting at the 1968 Summer Olympics programme. The competition was held on 18 and 19 October 1968 at the shooting ranges in Mexico City. 55 shooters from 34 nations competed.^[1] For the first time, the event was open to women as well as men (though none competed). Nations were limited to two shooters each. The event was won by Bob Braithwaite of Great Britain, the nation's first victory in the event and first medal of any color in the trap since 1908. Silver went to Thomas Garrigus of the United States. Kurt Czekalla of East Germany took bronze; it was the first medal in the event for East Germany as a separate nation, and the first medal for any German trap shooter since 1912.

Background

This was the 10th appearance of the men's ISSF Olympic trap event. The event was held at every Summer Olympics from 1896 to 1924 (except 1904, when no shooting events were held) and from 1952 to 2016; it was open to women from 1968 to 1996.^[2]

Eight of the top 10 shooters from the 1964 Games returned: gold medalist Ennio Mattarelli of Italy, silver medalist Pāvels Seničevs of the Soviet Union, fourth-place finisher Galliano Rossini of Italy, fifth-place finisher Ion Dumitrescu of Romania, sixth-place finisher Juan Enrique Lira of Chile, seventh-place finisher Bob Braithwaite of Great Britain, ninth-place finisher Josef Meixner of Austria, and tenth-place finisher Mohamed Mehrez of Egypt. Rossini was competing for the fifth time in the event, with a 1956 gold medal and a 1960 silver medal. Two of the three World Champions since the last Games competed: Lira (1965) and Guy Rénard of Belgium (1967); Seničevs had taken bronze in 1966.^[3]

The Browning shotgun was the most popular armament for the event.^[3]

Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ireland, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey, and Uruguay each made their debut in the event; East and West Germany competed separately for the first time. Great Britain made its 10th appearance, the only nation to have competed at each edition of the event to that point.

Competition format

The competition used the 200-target format introduced with the return of trap to the Olympics in 1952. Only a single round of shooting was done, with all shooters facing 200 targets. Shooting was done in 8 series of 25 targets. Shoot-offs of 25 targets each were shot as necessary to resolve ties for medals.^[3]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record
Olympic record	Ennio Mattarelli (ITA)	198	Tokyo, Japan	15–17 October 1964

Bob Braithwaite of Great Britain tied the Olympic record at 198.

Schedule

Results

Braithwaite started his first series at 11 of 13, but then finished that series and each of the next seven perfectly (hitting 187 consecutive targets).^[3][4]

A three-way tie for second place at 196 points required a shoot-off. Defending silver medalist Seničevs hit 22 on the shoot-off, while Garrigus and Czekalla both were perfect. The latter two advanced to a second shoot-off. Czekalla missed the first target, enough to put Garrigus on top for silver when the American was perfect again; Czekalla finished the second shoot-off at 23 and a bronze medal.

Rank	Shooter	Nation	Score	Notes
	Bob Braithwaite	Great Britain	198	=OR
	Thomas Garrigus	United States	196	Shoot-off 1: 25 Shoot-off 2: 25
	Kurt Czekalla	East Germany	196	Shoot-off 1: 25 Shoot-off 2: 23
4	Pāvels Seničevs	Soviet Union	196	Shoot-off 1: 22
5	Pierre Candelo	France	195
6	Adam Smelczyński	Poland	195
7	Aleksandr Alipov	Soviet Union	195
8	John Primrose	Canada	194
9	Jaime Bladas	Spain	194
10	Karni Singh	India	194
11	Ion Dumitrescu	Romania	193
12	Michel Carrega	France	193
13	Galliano Rossini	Italy	193
14	José Cusí	Spain	192
15	Juan Enrique Lira	Chile	192
16	Edward Shaske	Canada	192
17	Randhir Singh	India	192
18	Elias Salhab	Lebanon	191
19	Mohamed Mehrez	Egypt	191
20	Pedro Estay	Chile	191
21	Gheorghe Florescu	Romania	191
22	Rodolfo Guarnieri	Argentina	190
23	Rudolf Hager	East Germany	190
24	Juan Ángel Martini Jr.	Argentina	190
25	Georgios Pangalos	Greece	190
26	Ray Stafford	United States	189
27	Ennio Mattarelli	Italy	189
28	Sten Karlsson	Sweden	189
29	Werner Bühse	West Germany	189
30	Metin Salihoğlu	Turkey	188
31	George Silvernail	Puerto Rico	188
30	Ivo Orlandi	Venezuela	187
33	Miguel Barrenechea	Mexico	187
34	Eric Grantham	Great Britain	187
35	Markos Tzoumaras	Greece	187
36	Guy Rénard	Belgium	187
37	Josef Meixner	Austria	187
38	Erich Gehmann	West Germany	187
39	Kjell Sørensen	Norway	185
40	Pavitr Kachasanee	Thailand	183
41	Gustavo Zepeda	Mexico	181
42	Leo Franciosi	San Marino	181
43	Lin Ho-ming	Taiwan	181
44	Badir Shoukri	Egypt	177
45	Salvatore Pelliccioni	San Marino	177
46	Cheng Sung-gun	Taiwan	175
47	Dermot Kelly	Ireland	175
48	Walter Perón	Peru	175
49	Dipya Mongkollugsana	Thailand	175
50	Arturo Porro	Uruguay	171
51	Carlos Asbun	Bolivia	163
52	Ricardo Roberts	Bolivia	161
53	Ángel Marchand	Puerto Rico	156
54	Roberto Soundy	El Salvador	125
55	Domingo Lorenzo	Dominican Republic	124

References