First Air Rifle Competition of the season in the republic

Sparks

The first WTSC (Wilkinstown Target Shooting Club) 10m Air Rifle Open competition is on this weekend in Wilkinstown, Co.Meath. Strictly speaking, it's not the first air rifle competition of the season, that was the East Antrim Rifle Club's Target Shooting Festival at the start of October, but logistics problems meant I wasn't going to that one. I'm going to the WTSC open though, so expect a report later!

There was shooting today, but the bulk of the shooting will be tomorrow. This is a Registered Shoot, which means that National Squad members and hopefuls must attend and shoot. The range at WTSC is the best and largest in the country for air rifle at the moment, and recent investment in electronic scoring and other equipment means that things should run even more smoothly than last year.

As a side note, I'm intending to write reports on the competitions during the season here, as well as on my training blog. Hope you guys find them to be of interest, and if you have any questions, ask away...

Sparks

Match Report for the October Open Competition 18/19th October 2003

The October match was organized by WTSC and was held in Wilkinstown
Community Centre over the weekend of the 18th and 19th of Oct.03.

The event was well run and all enjoyed the competition.

In the competition match top honors went to Liam Spillane (Wilkinstown),
Nicola Murphy (Wilkinstown) and Ray Kane (Army) with respective scores
of 572, 570 and 567. This is Liam's first Championship victory and a
great boost to his confidence. Other excellent performances were put
in by Helene Meade and Sean Baldwin and Daniel Fleming. Mark Dennehy
makes a return to competition and his club mate Wiepka Wissema
from Holland also showed that she can mix it with the best.

Class A went to Liam, Nicola and Ray. Richard Stapleton (Wilkinstown),
Ryan Lynn (Wilkinstown) and Mark Dennehy (DURC) returned good scores.

Class B went to Sean Baldwin (Army), Terry Wearen (Army) and Kevin Smith
(Wilkinstown), with Gerry Shanahan (Wilkinstown) also making a welcome
return to Target Shooting and finishing 4th.

Class C went to Daniel Fleming (Army), Wiepka Wissema (DURC) and Jimmy
Byrne (Wilkinstown)

The top four places in Class went D went to four newcomers from the
Wilkinstown Club. Top honors went to Kieran Horgan, Michael Carr and
Mark McGrath with Mark Lynn taking 4th.

Ladies Match was fought out between Nicola Murphy (Wilkinstown), Helene
Meade (Wilkinstown) and Wiepka Wissema of DURC and the medals reflect
the above order.

Juniors Match
In the Junior match the four Wilkinstown Newcomers showed their mettle.
Kiernan Horgan took gold, 316/400 with Michael Carr taking silver and
Mark Lynn taking bronze. Mark McGrath came fourth.

Congratulations are extended to the prize winners and all who competed in
this competition. Liam Spillane and Nicola Murphy both hit Olympic
Qualifying Scores. Liam, Nicola, Ryan and Richard from Wilkinstown have
been selected to represent Ireland at the forthcoming European Championships
in Gothenburg along with Declan Kelly and Rhona Barry and we wish them all
well.

Special mention is made also to congratulate the four new Wilkinstown
shooters who took part in their first competition this weekend. They all
performed very well and are using this score to act as a basis for
developing their training plans which we hope will result in selection to
take part in the National Junior Squad and in the fullness of time represent
Ireland overseas.

In his Prize giving speech Matt Fox, Chairman of the Wilkinstown Club,
thanked all for competing and paid tribute to the guts of the new juniors
in taking part in a challenging sport. He also stressed the need for the
senior competitors to concentrate on developing their training strategies
and working to get their scores up. He also commented on our sports urgent
need to establish a permanent dedicated range to facilitate the development
of Olympic Target shooting disciplines in Meath and also serve as a national
centre of excellence for the these sports. Olympic Target Shooting, with
proper facilities, can accommodate abled and disabled athletes, Male and
Female competitors, in many cases the ladies are better than the men.
And competitors of all ages can also be accommodated. Age, in our sport,
is not a barrier to participation, or to high performance.

Geoff Cooney



I can't find a nice way to format the scores, so I've posted them up on the web here.

And I've updated my training blog with the competition entry.

I took several photos at the competition, but being boring ordinary film, you're going to have to wait for a few days before they get developed and scanned, but I will post them here when they're done. Hope y'all are finding this somewhat interesting...

Sparks

Finally got the photos from the second camera developed (the first camera had a fault that ruined the photos )



The firing line for the WTSC Air Rifle open, with the new scoring machine in the foreground and Ryan Lynn and Richard Stapleton in the background, preparing to shoot.

Sparks

The firing line prior to the final detail of the open, with all the shooters present. (Note that all the rifles were checked to be uncharged and all the breeches are open!)

Sparks

The firing line again.

Sparks

And again. Note the small window up by the basketball backboard in the background - that's the small kitchen/prep area/spectator lounge during matches.

Sparks

Left to Right:Mark Dennehy, Richard Stapleton, Kevin Smith, and then several blurry shooters!

Sparks

And the firing line again.