Timothy Quentin Lowndes (born 28 September 1979 in

Lilydale, Victoria Lilydale is an outer eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 34 km east from Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area. Lilydale recorded a population of 17,348 at the ...

) is an Australian sport shooter. He has competed for Australia in rifle shooting at two Olympics (2000 and 2004), and has been close to an Olympic final in 2004, finishing twelfth in the rifle three positions. Apart from his Olympic career, Lowndes has won a total of seven medals in a major international competition, spanning two editions of the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

(1998 and 2002), and the Oceanian Championships. Throughout his sporting career, Lowndes trains full-time under Yugoslav-born head coach and 1976 Olympian Miroslav Šipek of the national team, while he shoots at Townsville Smallbore Rifle Club on the outskirts of

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. Lowndes began shooting small-bore rifle at the age of thirteen, and then became a

champion in the rifle three positions when he was nineteen. Two years later, Lowndes made his Olympic debut as part of the host nation's shooting team in Sydney 2000. There, he finished a lowly forty-first in the

air rifle An air gun or airgun is a gun that uses energy from compressed air or other gases that are mechanically pressurized and then released to propel and accelerate projectiles, similar to the principle of the primitive blowgun. This is in contr ...

with 582 points, and then shared a credible score of 593 with his fellow marksman

Warren Potent Warren James Potent (born 7 April 1962) is an Australian sport shooter. He won the bronze medal in the 50 metre rifle prone at the 2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and offici ...

for nineteenth place in the rifle prone. Lowndes also competed in his favourite event, the rifle three positions, where he shot a total of 1159 points, 395 in prone, 375 in standing, and 389 in kneeling, to force in a two-way tie with Sweden's Olympic rifle prone champion Jonas Edman for a frustrating twentieth out of forty-four shooters. In 2002, Lowndes was able to back up his feat from the Olympics at the

in Manchester. There, he set a new Games record at 699.8 to deny Great Britain's Michael Babb a gold medal in the rifle prone. Lowndes captured a silver in the rifle three positions with 1251.2 points to add up his medal tally to two at these Games, narrowly losing the title to India's Charan Singh by a close, 0.3-point margin. The next season contributed to another monumental success for Lowndes, as he managed to get a gold medal and an Olympic quota place for Australia in his favourite event at the Oceanian Championships in

Auckland, New Zealand Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

with a steady 1231.4. At the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

in Athens, Lowndes qualified for his second Aussie team in rifle shooting. In the

10 m air rifle 10 meter air rifle is an International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) shooting event, shot at a bullseye target over a distance of using a calibre air rifle with a maximum weight of . It is one of the ISSF sports governed in shooting spor ...

, held on the third day of the Games, Lowndes shot 587 out of a possible 600 to tie for thirty-fifth place with three other shooters. Four days later, Lowndes bounced back from a dismal air rifle showing to attain a perfect 100 and three sets of 99 for a total score of 592 in the 50 m rifle prone, vaulting him up to sixteenth position. Lowndes' run ended in his signature event, 50 m rifle 3 positions, where he fired a brilliant 398 in prone, 374 in standing, and 389 in the kneeling to finish in twelfth with a total score of 1161, having been close to an Olympic final cutoff by just three points.

References

External links

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Australian Olympic Team Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowndes, Timothy 1979 births Living people Australian male sport shooters Olympic shooters for Australia Shooters at the 2000 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2004 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Shooters at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games gold medallists in shooting Commonwealth Games shooters for Australia Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games silver medallists in shooting Sport shooters from Melbourne 20th-century Australian sportsmen 21st-century Australian sportsmen People from Lilydale, Victoria Medallists at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Sportsmen from Victoria (state)