Canadian septuagenarian finishes eighth in Commonwealth Games shooting

GOLD COAST, Australia — Canadian Robert Pitcairn, at 79 the oldest competitor in the history of the Commonwealth Games, finished eighth Tuesday in the Queen’s Prize Pairs shooting finals.

Pitcairn, from Chilliwack, B.C., and teammate Nicole Rossignol of Quebec City had been ninth after the first day of the full-bore shooting competition final Monday.

At 79 years and nine months old, Pitcairn broke the record previously held by England’s Doreen Flanders, who took part in lawn bowls at Glasgow in 2014 a few weeks after her 79th birthday.

Pitcairn, a former member of the Royal Canadian Air Force who retired as a pilot in 1988, stopped a hijacking in 1974 when a passenger on a flight between Winnipeg and Edmonton attacked an air hostess with a knife and demanded he be flown to Cyprus.