Taeko Takeba

Taeko Takeba is a Japanese trap shooter. She won a gold medal in the women's trap at the 2001 ISSF World Cup final in Doha, Qatar, achieved a fifth-place finish at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, and represented Japan in two editions of the Olympic Games. During her sporting career, she trained full-time for the Ehime Clay Shooting Association under her personal coach, Atsushi Otsuke
Takeba made her official debut at the 2000 [Summer Olympics] in Sydney, where she wound up sixteenth in the inaugural Shooting at the [2000 Summer Olympics – Women's trap|women's trap] with a score of 56 hits, narrowly escaping from the last spot in a field of seventeen shooters by four points.
Shortly after the Games, Takeba gained recognition by winning a gold medal over Russian shooter and world record holder Elena Tkach at the 2001 ISSF World Cup final with a remarkable score of 88 targets.
At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Takeba qualified for her second Japanese squad, as a 38-year-old, in the Shooting at the [2004 Summer Olympics - Women's trap|women's trap] by attaining a minimum score of 68 and securing an Olympic ticket from the 2002 ISSF World Cup series in Shanghai, China. Improving her position from the previous Games, she amassed a total score of 59 hits out of 75 targets in the qualifying stage, but narrowly missed the final round by a single-point deficit with an eighth-place finish.