Timothy Quentin Lowndes (born 28 September 1979 in

Lilydale, Victoria Lilydale is a town and outer suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 34 km north-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 ...

) 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, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

(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/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. 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 The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. There, he finished a lowly forty-first in the

air rifle An air gun or airgun is a gun that fires projectiles pneumatically with compressed air or other gases that are mechanically pressurized ''without'' involving any chemical reactions, in contrast to a firearm, which pressurizes gases ''chem ...

with 582 points, and then shared a credible score of 593 with his fellow marksman Warren Potent 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 Jonas Edman (born 4 March 1967 in Linköping) is a Swedish rifle shooter, specializing in the Prone position. He was a 300 m Rifle specialist during most of the 1990s and a part of the winning team at the 1998 ISSF World Shooting Champi ...

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 Michael Babb (born 14 October 1963 in Farnborough, Kent) is a British sport shooter. He has competed for Team GB in small-bore rifle prone at two Olympics (2000 and 2004), and has been close to an Olympic medal in 2004, finishing in seventh pos ...

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 (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

with a steady 1231.4. At the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

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

10 m air rifle 10 metre air rifle (N.B. For "Meter" in this article – read "Metre") is an ISSF shooting events, International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) shooting event, bullseye shooting, shot at a bullseye target over a distance of using a .177 calibe ...

, 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 silver medallists for Australia Sport shooters from Melbourne Commonwealth Games medallists in shooting 20th-century Australian people 21st-century Australian people People from Lilydale, Victoria Medallists at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Sportsmen from Victoria (state)