Michelle Smith and Sharon Lee took silver in the pairs 50m rifle prone, and pairs skeet shooters Clive Bramley and Richard Brickell earned bronze today.

Cause for celebration – but for both pairs, there will also be a lingering sense of what-might-have-been as they ceded gold and silver respectively on countback.

The women scored 1169 points, with Smith contributing 590 and Lee 579, to equal the total of Jen McIntosh and Kay Copland. But the Scottish pair took gold through having scored 60 inner targets, as against the 52 their opponents managed.

Similarly the men tied with Canada on 191 points, but lost out after scoring one less on the final stage of 50 shots, 48-49. The gold went to Cyprus, who scored 194.

“It’s always frustrating to lose on countback,” said Lee. “But those are the rules. It was windy at the range, very difficult to read, and I was struggling a lot.

“I wasn’t very good today, but Michelle shot very well. I’m happy for her.

“It’s disappointing not to win the gold, but still it’s a medal. I had a silver at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne as well.

“We will both be confident about tomorrow’s singles competition.”

Smith was a little more upbeat than her partner. “These are my first Commonwealth Games and it’s just been fantastic,” she said.

“I shot at the European Championships and World Championships before, but in Britain shooting is just not very big and here we get so much attention, there’s so much press around. It’s exciting.

“Tomorrow it could be anybody’s medal – yes, mine as well.”

Asked to offer likely medallists, however, Smith identified Johanne Brekke of Wales, McIntosh and Tejaswini Sawant, India’s first female world champion shooter, who finished a point behind the English with Neena Kumar on 1168.