Huish wins in his back yard

Justin Huish, a Californian student who practises at home by shooting arrows through his garage door from across the street, yesterday won the Olympic individual gold.

Huish, 21, beat Sweden's Magnus Petersson to claim the United States's fifth Olympic archery title out of the six competitions entered since 1972.

Huish explained that the secret of his success was laziness. "When I'm at home and I'm feeling lazy and I don't want to drive an hour to the closest range, I shoot from across the street, up the driveway, through the garage, out the back door, and across my back yard on to a hill where there's a target about 49 metres away."

The only archer able to get close to the youthful upstart was Italian Michele Frangilli.

The pair finished their 12-arrow quarter-final level on 112 points apiece, but Frangilli could only manage a nine compared to Huish's perfect 10 when the contest was extended to a second sudden-death arrow.

In the final, Huish assured himself of the gold with such consistent shooting that not one arrow landed outside the gold inner circle. Petersson made Huish's task easier with an unexpected quarter-final victory over the favourite, Jang Yong-ho of South Korea.