PETER Wilson secured Dorset’s second medal of London 2012 with a stunning performance in the double trap shooting contest.

The Dorchester -born shooter topped yesterday morning’s qualification session with 143 out of a possible 150 and took a three-shot lead into the afternoon’s final.

And despite one or two minor wobbles, the 25-year-old held his nerve to see off the challenge of resurgent Swede Hakan Dahlby to claim gold at the Royal Artillery Barracks.

Wilson’s final score of 188 – out of 200 – was two clear of silver medallist Dahlby while Vasily Mosin of Russia took bronze after a shoot-off with Kuwait’s Fehaid Aldeehani.

Wilson’s gold is Britain’s first Olympic shooting medal since Richard Faulds triumphed in the same event in Sydney 12 years ago.

Faulds failed to reach the six-man final this time around after finishing 12th in qualifying with a score of 133 in his fifth Olympics .

Wilson, backed by Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum after losing his funding four years ago, came into the event as world record holder and world number two and was the youngest man in the final by some 13 years.

And as soon as he fired his winning shot, the Sherborne resident dropped to his knees on the range and one of the first people to swarm upon him in excitement was Ian Coley, his coach for the past five years.

Coley first met Wilson, the son of a Dorset farmer, in a chance meeting at Bisley Gun Club. The former is British Shooting’s head shotgun coach and he can now proudly boast having coached two great talents in Wilson and Faulds to Olympic victory.

Coley said: “He deserves everything because he works very hard at it. He puts everything into it that is needed and he deserves every accolade that he gets.

“I am entirely relieved. It was a wonderful result but it is one that I must say was expected.

“Peter is a methodical person and he actually said to me earlier this year that he was going to break the world record at some stage and lo and behold he did that in March in America.

“He also said that he was going to win the Olympic Games. He is always a man who does what he says.

“You could see that he was very cool. There was just that one pair of clays (that he missed in the final) that made it all on the tense side and got the crowd on their toes.

“But what a great thing he is for shooting in the UK. It is a great sport enjoyed by a lot of people.”

Phil Scanlan, shooting squad leader for Team GB, said he was confident of success but you can never account for the difference that competing at an Olympic final on home soil will make.

He said: “You know that he could either rise to that occasion or it would be too much for him. In the end we saw that he rose to it and it was fantastic.

“It was certainly nail-biting for me. When he dropped that pair I could not believe it.

“I do not think in the last two years I have seen Pete miss a pair. It was a complete shock and I think he just did it to keep us on our toes.”

Morale has been high within the team but Wilson’s success can only add to it and, hopefully, help the sport to grow.

“Pete’s gold will encourage people to emulate it – maybe they will not get a gold but they can certainly try and get a medal,” Scanlan added.