After a two year absence the Junior International Week returned to Bisley. Entries were slightly down in Prone and Air Rifle although Pistol , Sporter Air Rifle and Target Sprint looked very healthy. The South African team was strong , as usual. Two late call off’s meant a last minute change of plan and no Men’s team for prone.

Rhona Love , Finlay Love , Lilly Brechin , Lucy Richards , Rorie Watt , Kirsty Scott and Junsung Kim all travelled to Bisley.

The first day was Air Rifle training and WOW it was hot in the 10m range. We discussed a strategy for keeping cool but it was still very difficult. Unfortunately Rorie’s Air Rifle packed in during training. He managed to borrow one but struggled all week with it.

The first competition on Day 2 was 50m Prone. A practice in the morning to understand the wind helped a little but in the afternoon it was horrific , switching all over the range. Rorie shot 597.1 to finish in second place. The girls scored slightly better with Lilly winning with 603.9 , Lucy second with 599.8 and Kirsty 7th with 583.9.

Wednesday was the Air Rifle main competition. In the elimination round for the Men’s event Finlay shot a steady 586.3 for second place and shot a brilliant final to win the Gold medal for the event.

In the Women’s event Rhona shot 592.8 to qualify in second place with Lilly and Lucy in 6th and 9th places with 590.8 and 577.0 respectively. In the final Rhona shot consistently to win the Bronze medal.

Thursday was a tough day with Prone in the morning and Air Rifle in the afternoon. The wind had settled a bit but was still very tricky so everyone did well to improve their scores. Out of five team members four shot new personal bests. I didn’t tell them it was a tricky range.

In the men’s event Rory shot a new PB of 601.2 to qualify in second place. Junsung qualified in 7th place with a new PB of 588.4. In the final Rorie shot steadily to win the Gold Medal by 0.7.

The Women’s event was also very close. Lucy shot a new PB of 607.8 to qualify in 1st place with Lilly just behind with 605.9. A very happy Kirsty shot 590.8 for a new PB. In the final Lucy and Lilly changed places in the top 3 with each shot. With the last shot Lilly finished 1.1 points ahead of Lucy.

And so to the oven that is the 10m Air Rifle range. This was a GP with no final which was a relief to the competitors. The temperature peaked at 34 degrees and the shooters were visibly wilting so the scores were a bit down. Finlay was the best performer in the Men’s event winning the Bronze medal with 582.7. Rhona also won the Bronze medal in the Women’s event scoring 591.4. Lilly and Lucy were just behind with 590.8 and 590.2 which was a new PB for Lucy.

A week of many medals, the best yet, and lots of new PB’s in difficult conditions. Well done Team, you were brilliant.

Report by Ian Thomson, STS Rifle Team Manager