A fantastic week for Scottish Junior shooting. The Pistol report already lists their successful Medal haul.
Travelling to Bisley I thought I had the strongest Team so far. That proved to be correct with 4 Individual Medals and 3 Team Medals. I travelled with Vikki Walls, Georgia Gooch, Isabel Stark, Abby Martin, Scott Norval, Tom Diggle, Brogan Smith, Robin Shand and Steven Brown.
There was strong opposition from a large USA group, the top Danish Juniors, and several GB Squad members as well as South Africa and the other Home Countries and Regional Teams.
In Women’s Air Rifle, it was clear that the USA had a strong Team and would dominate the medal podium. However, Vikki managed to split the Americans by winning the Silver Medal (407.8) in the Grand Prix Match. In the Main Air Rifle match Vikki qualified in 3rd place and finished the final in the same position. The women’s Team Vikki, Georgia and Isabel finished just outside the Medals.
In Men’s Air Rifle, none of the Team finished on the podium but the Team, Brogan, Tom and Scott picked up the Bronze Medals.
In the Women’s Prone Grand Prix Vikki finished in 3rd place (602.6) while Tom won the same Bronze Medal in the Men’s event (607.2).
In the Prone Main Event, none of the girls featured in the final but consistent scores gave them the Silver Medal in the Team event (6 Teams). It was a tight finish being 0.8 ahead of 3rd place.
In the Men’s Prone event Scott and Tom performed well to qualify in 2nd and 4th place respectively. Brogan and Robin were just below the qualifying line. Unfortunately, they could not maintain their positions and following an extremely shambolic final were placed 6th and 7th. However consistent scores placed the Team, Tom, Robin and Steven, selected from the GP event, in Silver Medal position (7 Teams).
The GB Junior Team for the Drew Match against the USA, Australia and New Zealand was selected after the Prone Grand Prix matches. The scores in the Main Prone event were used for the Match scores. Tom and Vikki were selected for the Men’s and Women’s Teams of 3 and they were joined by Robin and Georgia in the full Team of 12.
The 5 days provides excellent experience for our Juniors. The opposition is always difficult to predict since Juniors leave and others join the event each year but the Team are already keen to do even better next year.
Ian Thomson