Amber Rutter came ever-so-close to securing Team GB's 11th gold medal of the 2024 Olympics in the women's skeet shooting following a dramatic shoot-off, only to be cruelly denied by a controversial refereeing decision.

Many, including Rutter, felt that she should have been given the chance to continue competing before Chile's Francisca Crovetto Chadid was awarded the gold medal.

Crovetto Chadid had a two-shot leading going into the final round, only to give those back to Rutter, amid some arguments over whether her ruled miss on the final four should have been considered a clean shot.

But after being sent to a shoot-out, where usually the first to miss goes out, Crovetto Chadid contentiously came out on top.

Both athletes were off-target during the third round of the shoot-out, but after Rutter was adjudged to have missed a second time in the next four, her opponent made no mistake and a clean two efforts prompted huge celebrations in Paris.

But slow-motion replayed showed that Rutter had in fact made contact with the target, which should have been ruled a hit, but without any VAR-type technology used her protests were fruitless and Chile secured their first gold medal in shooting history.

The clay had not been shattered by Rutter, which often signals a hit, as she instead clipped the right side of the target. However, any contact should be awarded as a hit according to the competition's rulebook.

Rutter lifted her arms in the air in protest of the decision and informed the official of their mistake, with the crowd also repeatedly chanting "hit!" but to no avail, with a focused Crovetto Chadid then stepping up to seal gold with the next two hits.

Hoards of social media users joined Rutter in complaints that she was 'cheated' out of a gold, as @HatScarfShirt on X (formerly known as Twitter) wrote: "Can’t believe Amber Rutter just got cheated out of another shot at the gold at @Olympics skeet. Must be a hollow victory for the Chilean, however good she was, to know for a fact that her gold as it stands was unjust."

That sentiment was echoed by @luisagottard1 who added: "That is so grossly unfair for Amber Jo Rutter. She hit them both. She loses out on a gold medal thanks to incompetent judging."

A frustrated Rutter will always wonder what could have been as she went in search of the first gold medal of her career, but she can still look back on the competition fondly with an impressive silver.

She only gave birth to her son in April and missed the Tokyo Games after testing positive for COVID the night before her flight to Japan, causing her to miss the Olympics.

That heartache nearly caused Rutter to quit the sport completely, but returned and came agonisingly close to a gold medal, before a wrong decision forced a premature end to a final shoot-out.