Tuesday

The Junior Women's 25m Sport Pistol was shot today in two relays with three of our shooters (Rosie, Emily and Katie) in the first relay and four (Ciara, Emilia, Kerstin and Kyla) in the second relay. This was a first major competition for some of our Junior Women and they coped incredibly well. Silver individual medal went to Kerstin and the team Silver to Katie, Kerstin and Kyla.

An appreciative audience enjoyed the medal presentations on the Tuesday evening, with Áedán Evans (Gold - with a 16 point lead over second place) and Conall Evans (Bronze - 8 points ahead of fourth place) for Junior Men’s 10m Pistol, and Kerstin Dodd (Silver) and the Ladies Team (Silver) of Kerstin Dodd, Kyla Dodd and Katie Knowles for 25m Sport Pistol.

Wednesday

Rather a change in the weather today, as the photos will show! The rain varied between heavy and torrential, with accompanying low temperatures and dull light conditions. At one point, on the 25m range, rain stopped play during the rapid section of the Men's Sport Pistol, while the range officers waited hopefully for a break in the weather and better conditions for scoring the targets! New faces were put on the targets after each series, as it was unlikely patches would stay on! However, despite these conditions and breaks, Áedán, Andrew and Conall put in excellent performances with the team winning Silver and Áedán individual Gold.

In the nice, warm, dry 10m range, the Junior Women had a delayed start to their match. Rosie tried several firing points before officials discovered the reason for a series of '0' scores - her target had been left on match rifle! The calm way she dealt with this was commented on by many - as was the subsequent string of 9's. A very impressive performance by a newcomer to international matches! The Gold medal was comfortably won by Kerstin, 10 points ahead of second place and with a High Performance MCS!

Thursday

All of our pistol shooters had the chance of a lazy morning. Their first competition today was 10m Air Pistol with the top eight shooting the final. The Junior Women started just after lunch with Katie and Kerstin qualifying for the final and Emilia just missing out, in ninth place.

In the final, Kerstin shot well and was placed fifth. Katie built up a good lead, which she held onto (despite some excellent shots from her competitors) to win the Gold medal.

In the Junior Men's qualifier both Áedán and Conall made the final. Conall shot well in his first international final, finishing fifth and Áedán held onto an early lead to win his third Gold of the International.

The Junior Women's team of Katie, Kyla and Kerstin won Bronze ( only missing the Silver by eight inner tens!) and the Junior Men's team of Áedán, Andrew and Conall won Silver.

Despite all the medals, PBs, equal PBs and impressive recoveries after some difficult situations, only Ciara and Andrew improved on their previous 10m Grand Prix score - just saying!

Our thanks to:

Hugh for all his help and coaching;
To the Mums and Dads who travelled with the shooters and supported the whole team;
To the range staff who ran the events as smoothly as the weather conditions would allow;
and to the shooters themselves who did what they came to do, coped really well with a different environment and conditions and made us all proud.

Special congratulations to Áedán, in his last year as a junior, for an amazing performance - individual Gold in each of his three competitions and Silver in both of the team events.Thanks, Áedán!

By the end of the medal ceremonies for five Gold medals, we were almost word perfect in our singing of Flower of Scotland!

Report by Janis Thomson and photos by Robin Thomson