American takes silver in women's skeet

BEIJING -- Chiara Cainero of Italy won the gold medal in women's skeet shooting Thursday, beating Kim Rhode of the United States and Christine Brinker of Germany in a shoot-off.

The three finished tied at 93 targets and Cainero hit the first two targets of the shoot-off. Rhode and Brinker each missed one. The shoot-off continued to determine second place. Rhode ended up winning the silver, and Brinker took the bronze.

It rained throughout the competition, with the downpour intensifying near the end of the finals.

"Certainly, the weather has influenced this competition," Cainero said. "We had bad vision. If there is no sun it is very difficult to tell the color of (targets) -- really not easy."

Cainero said she has trained in heavy rain in the last two months and that helped her on Thursday.

Cainero led after qualifying with a score of 72, but she hit only 21 of 25 targets in the final round, enabling Rhode and Brinker to catch up.

Rhode won gold in double trap in 1996 and 2004, but that event was eliminated for women before the Beijing Games. Forced to focus on skeet, she added another medal to her collection.

"After double trap was eliminated in 2004, I'm very happy just to be here at the Olympics and represent my country well," she said.