Open Airgun Championships at Bisley. (NSRA report)
The last day of the British Airgun Championships did not produce any new British Records scores, but did include a first.There have been a limited number of occasions in the past when a junior has elected to shoot in a Senior Open Championship instead of the equivalent Junior event. Most recently this was last year when James Huckle chose to contest the Senior Men Air Rifle Championship. His score then was good enough to have won the Junior Championship, but having decided to shoot as a senior he had to settle for second place behind Chris Hector.
This year his main junior opponent, Ken Parr Jnr, was not taking part because of his imminent departure for the European Championships. James again opted to shoot in the Senior Championship and went one better than last year. He started the final in first place on 587, two points ahead of Graham Rudd and four up on Chris Hector, the only competitors with any real prospect of catching him. But James gave them no chance to haul him back as he produced the highest 10-shot final of the day, 102.7, with a series of eight 10s and two shots of 9.9. James thus becomes the first Junior to win the British Open Men's Air Rifle Championship.
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The Air Rifle Championships were generally more closely contested than the Air Pistol Championships. Dan Rivers in the Junior Men had only a two-point advantage over Alex Covey, but a steady final was enough to see him comfortably home. Dan was also elected "Sportsman of the
Meeting" . Having a National Classification of D, he
elected to shoot in a higher class, because of his improvement in performance
over the last 12 months. He wound up in Class A, where he finished sixth in
the Aggregate as well as being the 2008 British Open Junior Men Air Rifle Champion. The prizes were presented on the final day
by Hugo Brunner, the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire and President of the
Oxfordshire Rifle Association. |
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The SH1 and SH2 competitors now shoot separate finals for the Disabled Championships, and unusually the leaders in each, Di Coates in SH1 and Adam Fontain in SH2 started on the same scores. By the time the final was over the winners of the two sections were again on the same score, although in the SH2 final James Bevis had overtaken Adam.
The Senior Women's final was another close
match for the medals. Louise Minett won, having started one point ahead of
Heloise Manasco and Michelle Smith, and had a better final score as well. But
Heloise and Michelle battled their way through to be tied once again after
nine shots. Both scored 9.8 with the last shot, necessitating a tie shot to
decide the silver medal, which went to Heloise by 9.5 to 9.2.
But the ultimate drama was in the Junior
Women's final. Jennifer McIntosh put up a 385, followed by Hannah Pugsley on
384 and Rebekah Pidgley on 383. Rebekah got very close to taking the lead
two-thirds of the way through the final, but faded away with her ninth shot.
On the firing points to her left things could hardly have been closer.
Jennifer had the outright lead for four shots, Hannah led for two and for the
remaining four shots (the second, fourth, fifth and tenth) they were tied.
Thus the Championship was down to a tie shot and this went Jennifer's way with
a 10.1 ahead of Hannah's 8.8. It remains to be seen which is more important
to Jennifer - the 10.1 winning the British Championship, or the 385 giving
her the Scottish qualification score to go to the Commonwealth Youth Games in
IndiaThe Air Rifle Open Championships medal
results were:
|
|
Senior Men |
|
|
|
|
1 |
J C Huckle |
United Glass |
689.7 |
|
|
2 |
G A Rudd |
Watsonian |
685.2 |
|
|
3 |
C W Hector |
|
684.8 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Senior Women |
|
|
|
|
1 |
Miss L C Minett |
|
491.5 |
|
|
2 |
Miss H Manasco |
|
489.9 |
9.5 |
|
3 |
Miss M Smith |
Aireborough |
489.9 |
9.2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Junior Men |
|
|
|
|
1 |
D Rivers |
Wantage |
668.4 |
|
|
2 |
A R Covey |
Tiverton |
661.2 |
|
|
3 |
J Hounsell |
Hampshire Scouts |
656.8 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Junior Women |
|
|
|
|
1 |
Miss J R A
McIntosh |
|
482.6 |
10.1 |
|
2 |
Miss H A Pugsley |
Chobham &
District |
482.6 |
8.8 |
|
3 |
Miss R E Pidgley |
|
481.3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Disabled SH1 |
|
|
|
|
1 |
Miss D Coates |
Centurion |
486.6 |
|
|
2 |
N L |
Swalecliffe &
District |
680.0 |
|
|
3 |
M J |
Whittlesey |
664.8 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Disabled SH2 |
|
|
|
|
1 |
J Bevis |
Ross-on-Wye |
686.6 |
|
|
2 |
A J Fontain |
|
684.1 |
|
|
3 |
T E Nelson |
|
583 |
|
In other major competitions over the
weekend, England had a clean sweep in the Home Country Internationals, and it
was pleasing to note that there were at least two countries in all six
International events, so none were cancelled as being walk-overs.
Mick Gault collected a typical haul - the
Class X Air Pistol Aggregate to add to the Open title and the Men's Confined
British Championship that he secured on Saturday. He also won both the
Standard and Five-Target Air Pistol Championships with scores which were only
one point below his current British Records, whilst Caroline Brownlie won
both of the equivalent women's events.
Chris Hector won the Air Rifle Class X
Aggregate and the Life and Annual Members Competition, and Adam Fontain took
the Disabled Prone Air Rifle Championship.
Under the heading of "New in the
Meeting" was the first holding of a Sporter Air Rifle Standing
competition. The first winner of the Junior Section was Craig Attwood of
North Devon Scouts, who took the Maidstone and District Cup, one of a group
of trophies passed on to the NSRA by the Maidstone and District Rifle League,
which ceased operating recently. In the much smaller section for seniors the
winner was Chrissy Monksummers, Coach to the NSRA's Sporter Air Rifle Squad.
Under the heading of "I didn't see
that coming" was Michelle Smith, who last year made history by being the
first-ever woman to win the Earl Roberts Trophy, the British Small-bore Rifle
Championship. Having started air rifle shooting some years ago, it quickly
came to a halt at the same time as her three positions shooting when she
sustained a knee problem. Having taken it up again she arrived at the meeting
with an average putting her in Class B. Her first match score resulted in her
being re-classified to Class A, the Aggregate of which class she proceeded to
win by a margin of 10-points. Michelle then completed the weekend with the
Bronze Medal in the Women's Open Championship as well as winning the Air
Rifle County Champions match.
A copy of the complete prize list is
available on the NSRA Meeting page of the Competitions section.