Cessnock shooting star Dan Repacholi says he probably always intended to compete at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, despite announcing his retirement after the 2016 Rio Olympics.
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“The plan was always to come back and do these Games but I had the shits after the Olympics and wasn’t sure what I was going to do,” he said.
“I had the sads and I just wanted to make up my own mind when I was ready to compete again.”
Repacholi returned to competition last week, winning the 10m/50m double at the national pistol shooting competition in Cessnock.
“That’s only the second time I had shot since the Olympics,” Repacholi said.
“It was part of the qualifying for the Commonwealth Games. There are three others I have to go to. Two in Sydney and one in Brisbane and then the team will be announced.
“That should put me in a good position at the moment. There has already been two events. You only have to go to four out of five, or drop your worst score from the five.”
Repacholi scored 540 in the 50m air pistol and 572 for the 10m air pistol.
“The scores were down a bit but I haven’t been really training so I wasn’t expecting miracles.
“I think top-score of the day was 574 in the 10m and 542 in the 50m so I wasn’t too far off the top.”
The top eight shooters go to a final and Repacholi struck form, shooting world-class scores
“My finals scores were great they would have been good enough for a medal in the World Cup. They were very good scores.”
Repacholi said unless a sponsor funded another Olympics campaign, Rio would be his last Games.
“I haven’t succeeded in four Olympics, I don’t think I will in a fifth. But if I found a sponsor that covered the whole lot then I might have a look at it, but if I’ve got to fund it I won’t,” he said.
“An Olympic Games is an expensive thing to do. I can’t do that again.”
