European Air Gun Championships

Sparks

The European Air Gun Championships will be held this year in Tallinn, Estonia from 1st to 6th March.

Ireland will be represented this year by Mr. Declan Kelly.

The NTSA would like to wish Declan every success in Tallinn and would also like to congratulate Declan on his recent performance in The Netherlands at Inter-Shoot 2005, where he also represented Ireland and set the highest score of an Irish competitor so far this year at an International competition.

Declan a member of Dublin Rifle Club, is setting out on his campaign of qualifying for Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, is currently our top Air Rifle, small bore prone & 3 positions Athlete. Declan’s form over the past 8 months has shown great progress, while under the watchful eye, of the Irish International Coach Mr. Barry Dagger.

Declan while an experienced international athlete will be joined in Estonia by Mr. Dagger, who has been working with Declan almost daily. This will be Declan’s 9th European Air Gun Championships in the Air rifle event.

Declan has also represented Ireland at many other International, World Cup and World Championship event’s, at the most recent World Championships in Finland 2002, Declan recorded a perfect 100 out of 100 on the last string of his Air rifle match. Declan currently holds the highest recorded international results in both Air rifle & 3 positions for the Men’s disciplines for an Irish Athlete. Declan’s personal best score in this event is a 592 ex 600, while in small bore prone he has shot a 599 ex 600 only last November in training.

But we have to go back to the European Championships of 1995 for the small-bore 3-position competition in Zurich, Switzerland, where Declan shot a very credible 396 ex 400 standing at 50m. This Declan says has been his finest hour to date. With this type of shooting, we can only expect to see good results from this seasoned athlete over the next year or two. Declan whom is now in his 21st year as a shooter has represented Ireland over a 9 year period, and appears to be maturing like good wine. We wish him every success in the future.

Patrick O'Brien
Chairman.
National Target Shooting
Association of Ireland.

Sparks

The senior men's air rifle qualifying rounds are being shot tomorrow from 0900 to 1300, EET (that's 0700 to 1100, our time). The finals will be held at 1400 EET, 1200 our time. Results should be up here soon afterwards.

The standard from the junior men has been impressive so far - 590 got you into the finals on countback, 596 won the match. The standard was equally high for the junior women, with 393 being the cutoff for finals and the highest score was a three-way tie on 395, but the winner came into the finals on 394 and had the best finals performance with a lowest score shot of 9.9.

Sparks

Results are up:

Rk FP No NAME NOC 10 20 30 40 50 60 TOTAL
1 36 4502 BALAZ, Zoltan SVK 100 99 100 100 100 99 598
(Final 10.8 10.1 9.1 10.2 10.4 10.6 10.5 10.2 10.3 10.1) 102.3
700.3
2 60 3601 HANSEN, Are NOR 99 100 99 99 100 99 596
(Final 10.5 10.2 9.6 10.4 10.2 10.3 10.1 10.8 10.2 10.9) 103.2
699.2
3 22 4501 GONCI, Jozef SVK 100 100 100 100 98 98 596
(Final 10.4 9.8 10.8 10.4 10.3 10.2 10.6 10.5 10.6 9.4) 103.0
699.0

4 11 403 KNOEGLER, Mario AUT 100 99 99 100 100 100 598
(Final 9.1 10.4 10.7 10.8 10.4 9.2 10.4 10.6 9.7 9.6) 100.9
698.9
5 68 3901 MOLDOVEAN, Alin George ROM 98 100 99 99 100 99 595
(Final 10.4 10.5 10.5 10.6 10.3 10.8 10.3 10.2 10.2 9.7) 103.5
698.5
6 58 2201 SIDI, Peter HUN 99 99 99 100 100 99 596
(Final 10.2 10.0 10.3 9.6 10.5 10.3 10.7 10.2 10.1 10.4) 102.3
698.3
7 69 4601 HAGLUND, Sven SWE 96 100 99 100 99 100 594
(Final 10.2 10.3 10.5 10.2 10.2 10.1 10.2 10.1 10.7 10.6) 103.1
697.1
8 24 3701 KRASKOWSKI, Robert POL 100 100 98 98 100 99 595
(Final 9.4 10.6 10.5 9.7 10.0 10.4 10.2 10.7 9.8 9.8) 101.1
696.1

68 65 2301 KELLY, Declan IRL 97 97 94 94 95 97 574

As you can see, an exceptionally high standard, with 594 needed to make the finals (and that was after splitting a three-way tie on countback), and the winner having put in a 598 and an excellent finals performance). Commisserations to Declan for not matching his personal best, though it should be noted that it's a far, far, far more stressful environment shooting in international competition, and Declan hasn't been slacking off in training, it just actually is that hard. He certainly has the potential and let's hope in the future he gets the support needed to fulfill it in competition.