British Airgun Championships (Irish Junior Shooter takes Silver Medal)

Sparks

Press Release:

British Airgun Championships
Bisley
25th to 27th Feb 05

Wilkinstown Target Shooting Club are sending a very strong air rifle team to compete at the British Open in Bisley at the end of this month.

The 10 person team, which consists of some of best target shooters in the country at present, will compete in the first of two matches on Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday morning. The competition consists of each competitor shooting a sixty shot match in one hour forty five. All matches are shot in the standing position, at paper targets at a distance of 10m.

The team consists of two senior female shooters, Nicola Murphy and Emma Lyons, one junior female (u21), Susan Cunningham, four junior male (u21) shooters, Liam Spillane, Damien Fagan, Ryan and Marc Lynn, and three senior male shooters, Richard Stapleton, Mark Dennehy and Daniel Fleming.

The team is accompanied by ISSF coach Matt Fox.

This is one of the strongest and most experienced teams from Ireland to take part in this competition in recent years. The team has Irish Junior Male Champions and Irish National Champions and several members have International experience also having shot in various competitions including Intershoot, the European Championships and World Cup Matches.

This match, important in its own right, also has the added significance of being a recognised match for Junior Carding.

The team, although representing the Wilkinstown Club, has an all Ireland feel to it. Nicola Murphy is from Kilkenny, Mark Dennehy from Tralee, Daniel Fleming from Waterford, (late of Cork), Emma Lyons is from Wicklow.

On the junior front this is the first major match for Susan, Marc Lynn and Damien and we wish them well. It is also Emma’s first overseas match and we wish her well also.

Good luck is extended to all our team.

Geoff Cooney
Secretary


I'll be taking a fair few photos while over there, hopefully, and I'll post them up here once we get back. Here's hoping that we take home a medal or two!

Sparks

Various shots from the range during the event:

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Snapshots of the WTSC team getting ready for Equipment Control:

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Liam Spillane getting ready to shoot on Saturday:





He put in a 577 in that competition overall. I don't have more photos alas, as I was spotting for him at the time (WTSC shooters were watching each other's shooting and taking notes on shot timing, stance problems, that kind of thing).

Liam put in a 571 on the Sunday and took first place in the Mens Junior Air Rifle Championships going into the finals with a one-point lead over Sutherland and Latham;







The pressure of shooting under the gaze of the rest of the team must was enormous, as you can imagine.





Unfortunately, Liam slipped once during the finals, and Latham stole ahead by 2.6 points to take the gold medal. This is the second silver in this event for Liam in two years.

Sparks

Emma Lyons shooting on Saturday:



And Marc Lynn, also on Saturday:



And Damien Fagan:



And all three together:



And the team conferring with their coaches after the match:

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Susan Cunningham shooting on Sunday:

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Nicola Murphy shooting on Sunday:



The three Irish girls shooting on Sunday:

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A nice shot of both disabled and junior shooters shooting side-by-side in air pistol, which is a lovely thing to say about the egalatarian aspect of the sport:

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WTSC coaches and spotters monitoring the shooters:

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The London and Middlesex Rifle Association, just after the Irish Invasion



And then, just like that, they were gone...



So, a good time had by all, much learnt, Liam Spillane won the Silver medal in the Junior Men's Air Rifle, Susan Cunningham and Marc Lynn won their class in their competitions, Damien Fagan finished fourth in his class, and both Marc Lynn and Damien Fagan recorded new personal best competition scores.

Sparks

Some coverage in the Meath Chronicle here.

That link doesnt work sparks - you need to be registered

Sparks

Here you go O_P

Wilkinstown club fare well


Target Shooting

LIAM Spillane (Wilkinstown Target Shooting Club) won a silver medal at the British Championships junior men’s open competition in Bisley on Sunday when he was narrowly beaten by Chris Latham from the UK.

Spillane qualified for the final in first place, one point ahead of Latham, and at the eighth shot of the 10-shot final Latham moved narrowly ahead. Despite some excellent shooting, the Meath man was unable to regain the lead.

This was a superb performance from Spillane who shot extremely well under pressure in the final. He also finished second in this event last year.

Mark Lynn and Susan

Cunningham both won their respective class events. Damien Fagan and Lynn recorded new personal best competition scores and Fagan finished fourth in his class.

The Wilkinstown club sent a 19-strong team to this event, consisting of 10 shooters, accompanied by coaching and back-up support.

This is the first time the club was able to send a fully-supported team to a major overseas match and all gained greatly from the experience.

Three medals and two personal best scores made it a competition to remember for the club.

Also, the results are up on the NSRA website here:
http://www.nsra.co.uk/news/uploads/AIRGUN%202005%20W.pdf

foresight

I want to congratulate the Wilkinstown Club for their great showing at that match. and good luck to the lads won the medals. :

Sparks

Thought this might be of interest to people, so here are my shooting diary pages and the Suis Ascor printout from both day's shooting (that printout is what you get when you use an electronic target instead of shooting on paper targets).

Saturday:
Match Plan:


Pre-Competition Notes:


Suis Ascor printout:



Post-Competition Notes:


Spotter's Notes:



Sunday:
Match Plan:


Pre-Competition Notes:


Suis Ascor printout:



Post-Competition Notes:


Spotter's Notes:



(And in case anyone's wondering, no I didn't do well at all Not happy with that performance in any shape or form, more range time and more training needed before the next trip I think!)

Sparks

Nice timely reminder, what with the 27-strong team now in training for the 2006 Airgun Championships in Feburary...

The NSRA have just released a colour brochure entitled "The NSRA and You" explaining what the NGB actually does for its members (*looks pointedly at some Irish NGBs*). We were looking at it and then spotted page three...



Look more closely at the photo...



In the coloured space, left to right, that's Susan Cunningham, Marc Lynn, Emma Lyons, Damien Fagan and Liam Spillane from the WTSC team

Nema

I need to ask, I dont know anything about AirRifles or Airpistol shooting, But whats up with the gitup they are wearing.

Is there a placement of colors i mean if you wear Blue dose that mean someone wearing Red is not as good as you or is it all the same?

Sparks

Nema wrote:

I need to ask, I dont know anything about AirRifles or Airpistol shooting, But whats up with the gitup they are wearing.

It's for support. You've seen weightlifters' belts? Same idea. Those air rifles weigh up to 5.5kg and you're holding them in what the doctors refer to as an asymmetric offset loading. Not good for the spine in the long term without some support to distribute the load around the body. It's even worse for .22 standing, where the rifles go up to 7kg and the recoil is greater. And as to the 300m standing shooting with the same rifles in 6mmBR...

Is there a placement of colors i mean if you wear Blue dose that mean someone wearing Red is not as good as you or is it all the same?

Nope, the colours are completely your own choices. In the 70s, all the colours were very dour and drab; today you can have any colour you want so firing lines are like an accident in a paint shop. Which is actually far more aesthetic than it sounds!