Britain’s elite shooters put their training to the test at the British Shooting Pathway Championships 2020, reports Anita North
Anita North won silver and gold in Women’s Trap at the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and 2010. She is now a British Shooting GB Talent Programme coach.
Olympic Trap and Olympic Skeet shooters on British Shooting’s Talent Pathway gathered at Nuthampstead Shooting Ground for this year’s Pathway Championships on the weekend of 17 and 18 October.
The 125-target competition was not restricted to those on Pathway, but was open to anyone wishing to participate. This championship always provides a great opportunity for shooters to test their training work, and for some it provides their first taste of competition.
In Olympic Trap there were six squads of competitors. After two days of shooting 125 targets, Jake Janes was the highest scorer on a 113. In total three finals were conducted – two finals for Pathway Men (an A and B final) with no differentiation between junior and senior men, plus a final for Junior Women. There were prizes of cartridges up for grabs for the finalists.
The junior women’s final saw Maddie Purser maintain her concentration and focus to take the win. Hollie Lumsden finished strong to finish second and Philippa Stroud worked hard to finish third. Elise Dixon and Hermione Burns were the other finalists. It was great to see Hollie, Philippa and Hermione taking part in their first final.
The Men’s Pathway B final was first up, and it was Tyler Minter who took the win, with Rory Richardson second and Charlie Rohan third. The other B finalists were Harry Poolman, Dean Molnar and Valdemar Hefer. The Men’s A final saw Mark Robinson take the win with Jake Janes second and Ben Killian third. Tom Burns, James Hudson and Niven Schofield completed the finalists.
In Olympic Skeet, there were four squads booked on to the competition, with three squads completing the event. There was one Pathway final. After 125 targets, Junior shooter Sebastian Noakes put in a fabulous personal best of 113 to be highest scorer. Andrew Payne was one target behind, Denzil Grose on 111, Gary Young, Sophie Herrmann and Maddie Russell completed the top six making the final. In the final Maddie Russell took the win and Sophie Herrmann was second with Andrew Payne completed the top three. Maddie and Sophie dug deep and their performances in the final are to be commended.
The competition finished with the prize ceremony. Class prizes of cash were awarded,
