GB win Para-Clay medals at IPC Grand Prix

Great Britain Para Clay shooting Team won a Gold and a Bronze medal at the IPC Grand Prix held in Italy from 24th to 27th September 2015.

Disability Shooting Great Britain director Julie Sperling lead a team of four standing and sixwheelchair athletes to the IPC Para-Clay shot gun Grand Prix held at Tiro a Volo Cieli Aperti shooting ground near Milan, Italy.

The competition was organised by the Federation Italiana Tiro a Volo under the management of Luca Minelli as part of a series of test events to set the competition regulations and classification rules to enable Para Clay shooting to be added to the IPC event schedule.

Sarah Bond, the IPC Shooting Manager and IPC Technical Committee member Wanda Jewell attended to review the progress being made with the base research into classification protocols being under taken by the Italian Federation.

The weather was excellent and the conditions were almost perfect. After two day practice the team was in good spirits and ready to show their full potential. The event was attended by athletes from Russia, Finland, Italy, Spain, USA, UAE and other countries.

The Grand Prix was for Trap only and was divided into two competition, Standing and Sitting.

The STANDING Competition

Andy WOMBLE kept his focus against stiff opposition, had an excellent shoot to finish in 1st place.

Steve LING was lying joint 4th and after a closely contested shoot off he retained his 4th place.

Both Andy and Steve progressed to the Semi Finals.

Andy continued his excellent performance and won through to the Gold/Silver Final.

After his shoot, Steve was placed 4th

Andy kept his nerve and composure in the Final and shot an excellent score to take the GOLD MEDAL.

The SITTING Competition

Mat GOODWIN was placed 2ndplace and Paul BAILEY 4th at the end of the qualifying round.

There was a shoot off for the Bronze match and Paul came through to win a place.

Mat progressed to a 3 way shoot off for Bronze, Silver and Gold and was . He was knocked into the Bronze medal match.

Mat had the better score and took the BRONZE MEDAL and Paul was given fourth place.

James Marsh Brown, Disability Shooting Great Britain’s CEO was also at the Grand Prix and said “ I was very impressed with the way in which the team performed. These guys are all self-funded and yet they are able to hold their own and win against teams that have full funded National Teams. As the UK’s NGB we are pushing hard to get para clay and visually impaired shooting into the IPC event programme as soon as possible and we will continue to work with IPC and other nations to ensure that these groups of Para athletes receive the same help and assistance given to the able bodied teams.”

DISABILITY SHOOTING GREAT BRITAIN

NATIONAL PARA CLAY SHOOTING TEAM

Performance Director and Team Leader:     Julie Sperling

Standing :     Andrew WOMBLE, Reg TOMS, Craig WILLIAMS, Steve LING

Sitting:          Paul BAILEY, MAT GOODWIN, Laugharne JONES, Alex SPERLING, Anthony EVANS, Chris WARNER

DSGB and DTSGB Association Merger

After several months of discussions Disability Target Shooting Great Britain Association has agreed to merge with the National Governing Body.

Full details can be found in a letter from James Marsh Brown, CEO, which can be downloaded here.

Tim Jeffery wins first International Individual Gold

Tim Jeffery won R5 Gold at the IPC Shooting World Cup Sydney by the narrowest of margins.

Second in qualification behind R4 Gold medallist Michael Johnson, Jeffery won the final by a margin of 0.1 from Australia's Bradley Mark.

Having already won a quota place for Rio at the World Champs in 2014, the experience of standing on top of the Podium will be invaluable to Jeffery as begins to fight for selection for the Games.

In R8 Karen Butler was 4th in qualification and finished in 7th place in the final.

In P4 Roy Carter was 17th and Issy Bailey was 19th in what is a new event for both shooters.

In P1 Carter finished 22nd while Bailey recovered from a poor first string to finish 14th.

Roy Carter wins P5 Gold in Sydney

Roy Carter won the P5 event at the IPC Shooting World Cup in Sydney. In the non-Paralympic event Carter cemented his status as one of the World's best as he held off Andrey Lebedinskiy to win with a score of 354, seven clear of the Russian. Issy Bailey finished in 11th place.

Karen Butler qualified for the R2 final in sixth position but was unable to mount a challenge in the final won by China's Xiao Hong Bai, finishing 8th.

Tim Jeffery narrowly missed out on the R4 final where Michael Johnson of New Zealand added another Gold to his impressive collection.

All four GB shooters will be out to post good performances in their primary events in the coming days - Karen Butler in R8, Tim Jeffery in R5, Roy Carter in P1 and Issy Bailey in P2.

Final report from IPC Shooting World Cup Croatia

Ten medals and three Paralympic quota places at IPC Shooting World Cup

Great Britain’s Disability Shooting Squad is celebrating medal-winning performances at the IPC Shooting World Cup held in Osijek, Croatia between the 7th and 14th July. This event was the first 2015 Paralympic Qualifier and attracted 230 of the World’s leading athletes from 48 nations.

The squad returned to Great Britain with three gold, four silver and three bronze medals and the team won three more quota places to add to the three already in hand for the Paralympic Games to be held in Rio next year.

The Team of 11 shooters fought off stiff competition from Ukraine, Russia, Iran, Serbia and France to finish second in the overall medal table behind China.

RIFLE EVENTS

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES

JAMES BEVIS (Paralympic Bronze medallist- 2012)

R5 10m Air rifle prone SH2 event
QUALIFYING ROUND – scored 636.3 to progress to the Finals in 2nd place
FINAL - GOLD MEDAL won with a superb performance, scoring 212.4. Serbia’s Dragan Ristic took the Silver and Ukraine’s Vasyl Kovalchuk took the Bronze.

R9 50m Rifle Prone Mixed SH2
GOLD MEDAL won with a score of 622.4. Russia’s Nikolai Krygin took Silver (615.5) and Serbia’s Dragan Ristic took Bronze (614.9).

MATT SKELHON (50m prone current World Record Holder, Paralympic medallists Gold- 2008, Silver & Bronze - 2012)

R3 10m Air Rifle Prone Mixed SH1
QUALIFYING ROUND - An excellent score of 634.4 to progress to the Final in 1st place
FINAL - SILVER MEDAL. France’s Christophe Tanche took Gold and Australia’s Anton Lee Zappelli took Bronze

R6 50m Rifle Prone Mixed SH1
QUALIFYING ROUND - scored 617.2 to progress to the Final in 2nd place behind Germany’s Natascha Hiltrop (621.5), but ahead of Israel’s Doron Shaziri (617)

FINAL - BRONZE MEDAL. Russia’s Andri Doroshenko took Gold and Spain’s Juan Saavedra Reinaldo took Silver.

Lorraine Lambert

R8 50m 3 positions Women SH1
QUALIFYING ROUND - scored 554 to progress to the Final in 8th place
FINAL - BRONZE MEDAL. China’s Cuiping Zhang taking the Gold and Australia’s Natalie Smith taking the Silver.

TEAM MEDAL PERFORMANCES

R2 10m Air Rifle Standing Women SH1
SILVER MEDAL – Karen Butler, Lorraine Lambert and Deanna Coates

R3 10m Air Rifle Prone Mixed SH1
SILVER MEDAL – Matt Skelhon, Lorraine Lambert and Ben Jesson. France took GOLD and Australia took BRONZE

R4 10m Air Rifle Standing Mixed SH2
BRONZE MEDAL – Ryan Cockbill, Tim Jeffery and James Bevis. Australia took GOLD and Ukraine took SILVER

R5 10m Air rifle prone SH2
GOLD MEDAL - James Bevis, Ryan Cockbill and Tim Jeffrey. Ukraine took SILVER and Serbia took BRONZE

R6 50m Rifle Prone Mixed SH1
SILVER MEDAL – Matt Skelhon, Karen Butler and Ben Jesson. UAE took GOLD and China took BRONZE

QUOTA PLACES WON FOR PARALYMPIC GAMES IN RIO 2016

RYAN COCKBILL - (2012 Paralympian)
R5 10m Air Rifle prone SH2
QUALIFYING ROUND - scored 633.8 to progress to the Final in 5th place
FINAL – 5th place achieving 1 x Paralympic Quota Place.

BEN JESSON (2012 Paralympian)
R6 50m Rifle Prone SH1
QUALIFYING ROUND - scored 611.8 to finish 9th achieving 1 x Paralympic Quota Place

LORRAINE LAMBERT
R6 50m Rifle Prone SH1
QUALIFYING ROUND - scored 603.4 to finish 18th achieving 1 x Paralympic Quota Place

OTHER NOTEWORTHY RESULTS

R2 10m Air Rifle Women SH1
KAREN BUTLER – qualified for Final in 7th place with score of 403.5, achieved 8th place in Final
LORRAINE LAMBERT – 12th with score of 399.7
DEANNA COATES – 15th with score of 396.5

R3 10m Air Rifle Prone Mixed SH1
OWEN BURKE – 21st with a score of 627.6
LORRAINE LAMBERT – 27th with a score of 626.6
BEN JESSON – 36th with a score of 624.6

R4 10m Air Rifle Standing Mixed SH2
RYAN COCKBILL – 22nd with score of 623
TIM JEFFERY – 23rd with score of 622.7
JAMES BEVIS – 29th with score of 621

R5 10m Air Rifle prone SH2
TIM JEFFREY - 17th with a score of 630.1.

R6 50m Rifle Prone SH1
KAREN BUTLER - 23rd with a score of 607.8

R8 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women SH1
KAREN BUTLER – 9th with a score of 546.

PISTOL EVENTS

P1 10m Air Pistol Men SH1
STEWART NANGLE
QUALIFYING ROUND - scored 570 to progress to the Final in 3rd place
FINAL – achieved 8th place

P2 10m Air Pistol Women SH1
ISSY BAILEY
QUALIFYING ROUND - scored 363 to finish in 11th place.

P3 25m Pistol
STEWART NANGLE
QUALIFYING ROUND – scored 546 to finished in 20th place

P4 50m Pistol
STEWART NANGLE
ELIMINATION ROUND- Scored 508
QUALIFYING ROUND – scored 519 to finish in 18th place.
 

Col B Pasan Kularatne, Disability Shooting’s Performance Director and Head Coach says:

“I am very pleased with overall performance of the Great Britain Team, especially those of James Bevis, Matt Skelhon and Lorraine Lambert who both won individual medals. It was also great to win three quota places for the Paralympic Games next year on the last day of the competition through Benjamin Jesson, Lorraine Lambert and Ryan Cockbill.

We had already won three quota places at the World Championships last year so now we have six places for Rio, which is half of the maximum twelve quota places a nation can win. There are two more Paralympic Qualifier World Cups later this year in Australia and  USA that will give us the opportunity to win further places for the Rio Games next year.

Conditions during this World Cup were very challenging.  On some days the weather was extreme with temperatures reaching 38 C, there were accessibility problems with the transport that created difficulties for the athletes in wheelchairs and the 10m and 50m ranges were in different locations. However, despite all these challenges, all athletes and staff were very focused on what we came here to do and in the end we achieved our goals.”

James Marsh Brown, the CEO of the National Governing Body comments:

"On behalf of the National Governing Body, I would like to congratulate all members of the Team for this great result. Achieving such results on the World Stage is a constant battle but with the dedication and determination shown by all the members of this team, both athletes and support staff, it is possible for Great Britain shooters to hold their own on the World Stage.

Coming second in the medal table when so many of the World’s leading athletes are present makes the achievement all the more impressive. We would not be able to achieve these results without the support we receive from UK Sport and the National Lottery.

As we go forward to 2016 and the Paralympic Games, our preparations are well in hand. We have two more World Cup events at which we can achieve further quota places and I and my Board are confident that the Team under the guidance of Col B Pasan Kularatne will achieve our goal of securing the maximum number of quota places to allow us to show the World the full potential of the Great Britain Disability Shooting Team."

The Great Britain Disability Shooting Team

Matt Skelhon (R), James Bevis (R) , Deanna Coates(R) , Karen Butler(R), Owen Burke(R), Lorraine Lambert(R), Benjamin Jesson(R), Tim Jeffery(R), Ryan Cockbill(R), Stewart Nangle(P) and Issy Bailey(P).

The Disability Shooting Support Team

Performance Director, Head Coach & Team Leader
Col B  Pasan Kularatne MSc psc (ret.)

Deputy Team Leader and Rifle Coach
Lee Riley

Rifle Coach
Mike Babb

Pistol Coach
Vladimir Filimonov

Psychologist
Paul Hughes

Physiotherapist
Joanne Hipkiss.

Athlete Support Staff & carers
Andrew Cockbill
Roberta Ballestriero
Steven Copestick
Alison Walmsley

Bevis wins Gold as GB earn three more quota places for Rio

James Bevis won R5 Gold and Matt Skelhon R6 Bronze as GB picked up a further three quota places for Rio as the IPC Shooting World Cup Croatia concluded.

Ryan Cockbill picked up a quota place in R5 after finishing in 5th, while Ben Jesson and Lorraine Lambert won quota places in R6 after finishing 9th and 18th respectively.

With three quota places won by Skelhon, Bevis and Jeffery at the World Championships GB now have six slots for Rio 2016 which two further qualifying competitions to follow. GB are joint third on the list of quota places earned, behind Korea and China and level with Australia.

The full list of GB placings at the IPC Shooting World Cup Croatia is as follows:

R1
Owen Burke 12th

R2
Karen Butler 7th (8th)
Lorraine Lambert 12th
Deanna Coates 15th

R3
Matt Skelhon 1st (2nd) - Silver medal
Owen Burke 21st
Lorraine Lambert 27th
Ben Jesson 36th

R4
Ryan Cockbill 22nd
Tim Jeffery 23rd
James Bevis 29th

R5
James Bevis 2nd (1st) - Gold medal
Ryan Cockbill 5th (5th) - Quota place
Tim Jeffery 17th

R6
Matt Skelhon 2nd (3rd) - Bronze medal
Ben Jesson 9th - Quota place
Lorraine Lambert 18th - Quota place

R7
Owen Burke 17th

R8
Lorraine Lambert 8th (3rd) - Bronze medal
Karen Butler 9th

R9 (not a Paralympic event)
James Bevis 1st (no final)

P1
Stewart Nangle 3rd (8th)

P2
Issy Bailey 11th

P3
Stewart Nangle 20th

P4
Stewart Nangle 18th

P5 (not a Paralympic event)
Issy Bailey 16th

Silver for Skelhon as IPC Shooting World Cup Croatia gets underway

Matt Skelhon (pictured) won Silver in the R3 (10m air rifle prone mixed SH1) event as the first events of the Paralympic Qualifier got underway.

Lorraine Lambert won R8 (50m rifle 3 position women SH1) Bronze but narrowly missed out on a quota place

There were also medals for the R2 (10m Air Rifle Standing Women SH1) team of Karen Butler, Deanna Coates and Lorraine Lambert who took silver R4 team of James Bevis, Ryan Cockbill and Tim Jeffery who won Bronze.

All the positions of GB athletes who have competed thus far are shown below. The qualification position is shown first followed by the finals position in brackets.

R1 (10m Air Rifle Standing Men SH1)
Owen Burke 12th

R2 (10m Air Rifle Standing Women SH1)
Karen Butler 7th (8th)
Lorraine Lambert 12th
Deanna Coates 15th

R3 (10m Air Rifle Prone Mixed SH1)
Matt Skelhon 1st (2nd)
Owen Burke 21st
Lorraine Lambert 27th
Ben Jesson 36th

R4 (10m Air Rifle Standing Mixed SH2)
Ryan Cockbill 22nd
Tim Jeffery 23rd
James Bevis 29th

R5 (10m Air Rifle Prone Mixed SH2)
14th July

R6 (50m Rifle Prone Mixed SH1)
13th July

R7 (50m Rifle 3 Positions Men SH1)
Owen Burke 17th

R8 (50m Rifle 3 Positions Women SH1)
Lorraine Lambert 8th (3rd)
Karen Butler 9th

R9 (50m Rifle Prone Mixed SH2 - not a Paralympic event)
13th July

P1 (10m Air Pistol Men SH1)
13th July

P2 (10m Air Pistol Women SH1)
Issy Bailey 11th

P3 (25m Pistol Mixed SH1)
Stewart Nangle 18th (precision) 20th (rapid fire)

P4 (50m Pistol Mixed SH1)
14th July

P5 (10m Air Pistol Standard SH1 - not a Paralympic event)
Issy Bailey 16th

Cockbill takes medal tally to four as Turkey World Cup concludes

GB take Silver and Bronze in R5 and win Team Gold on final day in Turkey

R5 10m Air Rifle Standing Mixed SH2

Ryan Cockbill was 4th in qualification with a score 635.5. Current World Champion Minna Leinonen of Finland led the qualification with a score of 636.3 ahead of Michael Johnson from New Zealand who shot 635.9 and Dragan Ristic from Serbia who shot 635.5.
 
Cockbill shot tremendously in the final to win the Silver after a shoot off with Johnson. Both athletes shot 212.1 in the first 20 shots and in the shoot off Ryan shot 10.4 and Michael shot 10.7 to win the Gold.
 
James Bevis was 6th in the qualification with a score of 632. He finished 3rd in the finals to win the bronze behind Cockbill.
 
Tim Jeffery was 5th in the qualification with a score of 633.1 and finished 8th in the finals. Rob Mcleary with 624.1 finished 17th. 
 
The Great Britain team of Cockbill, Jeffery and Bevis won the team gold ahead of Serbia and Russia who won Silver and Bronze respectively

GB win two medals in R2 on Day three of the World Cup in Turkey

Success for Coates and Lambert in R2 as McLeary picks up Falling Target Silver

R2 10m Air Rifle Standing Women SH1

Deanna Coates MBE was 2nd in qualification with a score of 403.4 behind Veronika Vadovicova of Slovakia. The order was repeated in the final with Coates winning Silver with a score of 201.4 finishing behind behind Vadovicova.

Lorraine Lambert was 7th in qualification with a score of 394.4, but stepped up to win the Bronze in the finals. Mandy Pankhurst was 8th with a score 390.7 in qualification and finished 4th in the finals meaning GB occupied three of the top four slots.

P1 10m Air Pistol Men SH1

Both GB pistol shooters made the final. Stewart Nangle was 3rd with a score of 563 in qualification with Roy Carter just behind him with a score of 562.

Unfortunately, neither made the medals positions in the final, with Nangle in 4th and Carter in 6th behind the Gold medallist Korhan Yamac of Turkey.

Falling Target Rifle Mixed SH2

Rob McLeary won the silver behind Michael Johnson from New Zealand and ahead of Dragan Ristic from Serbia.

Cockbill claims two medals on Day Two at Turkey World Cup

Ryan Cockbill wINS Individual Silver and Team Gold as GB increase their medal tally on day two in Turkey

R4 10m Air Rifle Standing Mixed SH2

Ryan Cockbill (pictured) was 2nd in qualification with a score 628.3, behind Paralympic legend Michael Johnson of New Zealand who shot 630. Tim Jeffery was placed 3rd with a score 627.1
 
During the finals Cockbill won the Silver with a final score of 210.2 . Johnson shot 211.2 to win the gold.  Bronze was won by Sinisa Vidic from Serbia while Tim Jeffery just missed out on a podium slot and finished 4th.
 
Rob McLeary -618.9- finished  11th
James Bevis- 618.4 finished 12th
 
The GB team of Cockbill, Jeffery and McLeary won the Team Gold ahead of Greece and Serbia who won Silver and Bronze respectively.

Jesson wins two medals on Day One of Turkey World Cup

After the first day of action in the IPC Shooting World Cup in Antalya, Turkey, GB won three medals.

R3 - 10m Air Rifle Mixed SH1

Ben Jesson (pictured) was 4th in qualification with a score of 626.6. He won the bronze with a final score of 186.2. Veronika Vadovicova from Slovakia won the Gold and Savas Ustan from Turkey won the Silver.
 
Lorraine Lambert was 6th in qualification with a score 624.5 and also finished 6th in the final. Mandy Pankhurst shot 617.4 and finished 12th while Deanna Coates shot 617.2 and finished 13th
 
The Great Britain Team of  Jesson, Lambert and Pankhurst won the Team Silver behind Slovakia and ahead of Turkey.

FTP - Falling Target Pistol

Roy Carter continued his medal winning run in the Falling Target event as he won the Silver behind Paval Obvintsev of Russia with Korhan Yamac of the host country in Bronze position.

GB win seven medals in Hannover

The Great Britain Disability Shooting squad have returned from the International Shooting Competitions of Hannover (ISCH) with seven medals, including an individual gold medal for Roy Carter in the pistol shooting competition.

The event, which took place from April 26 to May, was also an opportunity for the shooters to post minimum qualification scores (MQS) for Paralympic Games qualification.

Roy Carter’s individual gold was won in the P5 10m standard air pistol competition. He shot 357 to finish in the top spot ahead of Frank Heitmeyer of Germany, who shot 346 and Geraldo Rosenthal of Brazil.

As well as Carter’s individual gold there was also three team golds for Great Britain.

In the R6 50m rifle prone SH1 mixed Matthew Skelhon led the qualification with score of 621.8 but finished fourth in the final behind Suranji Laslo of Serbia, Carlos Garletti of Brazil and London 2012 Paralympic silver medallist Juan Antonio Saavedra of Spain. Great Britain’s Karen Butler placed seventh in qualification round with a score 617.1 but finished the final in eighth place. The other Great Britain scores and positions were: Ben Jesson finished 15th with score of 610.3; Mandy Pankhurst finished 17th with 609.9; Lorraine Lambert finished 20th with 607.2; Lesley Baldwin finished 30th with 595.1 and Owen Burke finished 32nd with 593.8. The team of Matt Skelhon, Ben Jesson and Lorraine Lambert combined scores to win the team gold ahead of Slovakia and Korea.

Great Britain’s second team gold came in the R8 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 women. In this event Karen Butler finished fourth with a final score of 421.3. She was placed seventh with a score 554 in the qualification round but just missed out on a podium spot. The gold medal was won by Xiaohong Bai of China and silver went to Veronika Vadovicova from Slovakia. Great Britain’s Lorraine Lambert finished sixth in the final and Lesley Baldwin was ninth. Their scores were then combined to see them win the team gold.

The third and final team gold was won by Great Britain’s women in the R2 10m air rifle SHI women. Mandy Pankhurst finished fourth after the finals. Her qualification score was 392 and she placed eighth overall. Lorraine Lambert finished seventh in the finals. Her qualification score was 398.8 and she placed sixth. Lesley Baldwin finished eighth in the finals. Her qualification score was 395.8 and she placed seventh. The team of Pankhurst, Lambert and Baldwin then combined to take the team gold.

Paralympic medallist Matthew Skelhon (pictured) won an individual bronze in the R3 10m air rifle prone mixed SH1 before winning team silver, alongside Ben Jesson and Lorraine Lambert. Skelhon won the bronze after qualifying for the final in second with a score 636.3.Veronika Vadovicova from Slovakia won the gold and Massimo Croci from Italy won the silver. Meanwhile Lesley Baldwin finished 18th with 628.6; Ben Jesson finished 25th with 626.6; Lorraine Lambert finished 28th with 626.3; Mandy Pankhurst finished 31st with 624.3. The scores for Jesson, Lambert and Skelhon were then combined for them to win the team silver, ahead of China with bronze but behind Slovakia with the gold.

It was Stewart Nangle who won Great Britain’s second individual bronze medal, placing third in the P1 10m air pistol men SH1. He was placed fourth following the qualification round with a score 565. Oleksil Denysiuk of Ukraine won the gold, while silver went to Chao Yang of China. Great Britain’s Roy Carter finished 19th with a score 544.

In other competitions, Owen Burke finished 10th in the R7 50m rifle 3 position SH1 men with a score 1117, and Kyrun Spraggs finished 15th in the R4 10m air rifle standing SH2 mixed, with a score 623.9.

In the P4 50m Pistol SH1 Men, Stewart Nangle was second in qualification with a score of 535 but he finished fifth overall. Meanwhile in the R5 10m air rifle prone SH2 mixed Kyrun Spraggs finished 25th with a score of 627.9 and in the R1 10m air rifle standing SH1 men Owen Burke just missed out on a medal, finishing fourth in the final.

The Great Britain Team was supported by Pasan Kularatne, (Performance Director and Head Coach), Mike Babb (Rifle Coach) Vladimir Filimonov (Pistol Coach), Kapila De Alwis (Coach/ Support Staff), Desi Gillespie (Physiotherapist) and Jane Wilson (Support Staff).

Hannover results so far

The Great Britain squad travelled to the International Shooting Competitions of Hannover (ISCH) to compete in the first 50m events of the year. ISCH is an IPC approved competition so any MQS shot will be recognised.

Here's a summary of the results so far:

R6 – 50m Rifle Prone SH1 Mixed

Matthew Skelhon led the qualification with score of 621.8 but finished 4th in the final behind
Suranji Laslo of Serbia, Carlos Garletti of Brazil and London 2012 Paralympic silver medallist Juan Antonio Saavedra of Spain
 
Karen Butler was placed 7th in qualification with a score 617.1 and finished 8th in the final. The other GB scores and positions were:
 
Ben Jesson finished 15th – 610.3
Mandy Pankhurst - 17th - 609.9
Lorraine Lambert - 20th - 607.2
Lesley Baldwin - 30th - 595.1
Owen Burke - 32nd - 593.8
 
The R6 Team of Matt, Ben and Lorraine won Gold ahead of Slovakia and Korea.

R8 - 50m Rifle 3 positions SH1 Women

Karen Butler finished 4th with a finals score of 421.3. She was placed 7th with a score 554 in the qualification. The Gold was won by Xiaohong Bai of China and Silver went to Veronika Vadovicova from Slovakia
 
Lorraine Lambert finished 6th in the final, she was placed 3rd in qualification with a score of 566. Lesley Badwin was 9th with a score of 534.
 
The GB Team (pictured) of Karen, Lorraine and Lesley won Gold.

R7 50m Rifle 3 Position SH1 Men

Owen Burke finished 10th with a score 1117

R4 10m Air Rifle Standing SH2 Mixed

Kyrun Spraggs finished 15 with a score 623.9

R3 - 10m Air Rifle Prone Mixed SH1

Matthew Skelhon won the Bronze after qualifying for the final in second with a score 636.3.
Veronika Vadovicova from Slovakia won the Gold and Massimo Croci from Italy won the Silver.

Lesley Baldwin finished 18th – 628.6
Ben Jesson – 25th - 626.6
Lorraine Lambert - 28th - 626.3
Mandy Pankhurst- 31st - 624.3
 
The R3 Team of Matt, Ben and Lorraine won Silver behind Slovakia and ahead of China.

P5 – 10m Air Pistol Standard

Roy Carter won the Gold with a score 357 ahead of Frank Heitmeyer of Germany who shot 346 and Geraldo Rosenthal of Brazil

P4 - 50m Pistol SH1 Men

Stewart Nangle was second in  qualification with a score of 535. He finished 5th in the final.

P1 - 10m Air Pistol Men SH1

Stewart Nangle won the bronze. He was 4th in the qualification with a score 565. Oleksil Denysiuk of Ukraine won the Gold and Silver to Chao Yang of China.
 
Roy Carter finished 19th with a score 544.

Final day in Poland brings more medals

The final day of the IPC Shooting World Cup Poland featured one event and two GB medals.

Sarah Woods, James Bevis and Tim Jeffery all qualified for the final of R5 (Mixed 10m Air Rifle prone SH2) earning the Team Gold medal in the process. Rab McLeary just missed out on the final finishing in 9th place.

The final was incredibly tight. Woods was the first GB athlete to be eliminated in 6th place. Bevis left the competition just outside the medals in 4th. Jeffery was neck and neck with Ukraine's Vasyl Kovalchuk and Johnny Andersen of Denmark but a 9.9 put paid to his chances of Gold and he had to settle for Bronze.

A haul of four medals from the competition for Jeffery was a tremendous return for the young athlete who has an incredibly bright future in the sport.

Silver for Nangle and PB for Bailey in Poland

The penultimate day of the IPC Shooting World Cup Poland saw a Silver medal for Stewart Nangle in P1 (Men's 10m Air Pistol) and a personal best for Issy Bailey in P2 (Women's 10m Air Pistol).

Nangle qualified in third place for the final with a 567, Roy Carter just behind him in 4th with 555.

In the final Nangle could not match Uzbekistan's Server Ibragimov who shot a finals world record to claim Gold. Nangle had to be content with Silver but will surely look to triumph in Croatia in what could be the beginning of a fierce rivalry. Carter was the first to be eliminated in the final, finishing in 8th place.

Issy Bailey shot a stunning qualification round of 373 to head the field into the P2 final. It was her international personal best by some margin and she left the Ukraine trio of Liakhu, Skok and Kovalchuk trailing in her wake. She was unable to carry her form into the final but fought valiantly to finish fourth behind the more experienced Ukrainians.

Finally, in the SH2 Falling Target event Tim Jeffery (pictured) and Sarah Woods both reached the final with Jeffery taking Bronze.

The action concludes on Tuesday with strong GB representation in R5 (Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH2).

Further medal success in Poland

The pistol squad followed up their two medals in the falling target event with a Gold for Roy Carter in P5 and a team silver for Carter, Stewart Nangle and Issy Bailey. All three will look to take their strong form into P1 for Carter and Nangle and P2 for Bailey.

The SH2 competitions kicked off with R4. Ryan Cockbill and Tim Jeffery both made the final with Cockbill claiming Bronze with Jeffery just behind in fourth. In a World Class event New Zealander Michael Johnson broke the finals world record with Ukrainian Vasyl Kovalchuk in Silver.

Great Britain's strength in depth in SH2 was demonstrated as Cockbill, Jeffery and Rab McLeary (pictured) took Team Gold ahead of Ukraine and Germany.

Strong start for GB at Poland World Cup

DSGB made a strong start to their first day of competition at the 2015 IPC Shooting World Cup in Szczecin, Poland.

Di Coates kicked off the day by just missing out on the medals, finishing 4th in R2. Australia's Natalie Smith won the event, holding off Slovakia's Veronika Vadivicova.

The pistol squad, made up of Issy Bailey, Stewart Nangle and Roy Carter were collectively impressive in the falling target event. Issy Bailey went to a shoot off in the semi final eventually missing out to Osvaldo Gentili of Argentina. Stewart Nangle and Roy Carter represented DSGB in the final going to a shoot off for the three medal places with Filip Rodzik of Poland. The home nation's man picked up gold with Stewart and Roy taking silver and bronze respectively (pictured).

Action continues on Sunday with P5 and R4.

GB enjoy medal success on home soil at World Cup season opener

GB got off to a solid start at the opening IPC Shooting World Cup of 2015 winning nine medals, including gold for Paralympic medallist Matt Skelhon

Twenty-five GB shooters took on the world’s finest athletes as the IPC Shooting World Cup 2015 series got under way at Stoke Mandeville (March 30 – April 1). With approximately 80 shooters lining up from over 20 different nations, competition was fierce as athletes looked to make their mark at the start of the final season ahead of Rio 2016.

IPC President Sir Philip Craven joined spectators on the first day of competition, where the host nation enjoyed success with Lorraine Lambert collecting bronze in the R2 (women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1) with a score of 177.7, behind European Champion Veronika Vadovicova  of Slovakia (205.4) and Australia’s Elizabeth Kosmala (200.7). 

In the falling target rifle SH2, a non-Paralympic event, GB showed their dominance with Tim Jeffery taking gold over Ukraine’s Vasyl Kovalchuk and Australia’s Luke Cain in silver and bronze respectively.

Earlier in the competition, Deanna Coates used her competitive experience to take the win in the falling target rifle SH1 ahead of Kosmala and Coates’ team-mate Mandy Pankhurst, who took bronze.

In a nail-biting day of sporting action on day two, Matt Skelhon took gold for Great Britain in the R3 (mixed 50m rifle prone SH1), claiming a narrow victory over Slovakia’s Veronika Vadovicova by 0.3 points.

Vadovicova was leading until the very final round of the competition, but when she shot a 9.9. Skelhon seized the advantage by shooting a 10.8  to claim his first international title of 2015.

Elsewhere, Ryan Cockbill claimed bronze in the R4 (mixed 10m air rifle standing SH2) behind French athlete Tanguy De La Forest and Vasyl Kovalchuk, the European Champion.

Over in the falling target pistol event, Oleksii Denysiuk secured Ukraine’s first gold of the competition ahead of Great Britain’s Roy Carter and Azerbaijan’s Akbar Muradov with silver and bronze respectively.

The final day of competition there was further success for GB in the pistol events, with Stewart Nangle (pictured) claiming the win in the P1 (men’s 10m air pistol SH1), improving on the bronze won on his debut in 2014 and adding a ninth medal to the GB haul.

The GB contingent will now be looking ahead to the next IPC Shooting World Cup, to be hosted in Szczecin, Poland, from April 17-21 with the first in a series of three qualifiers for Rio 2016 taking place in Osijek, Croatia, from July 10-14.

Ashley Adams

DSGB is saddened to learn that Ashley Adams, five times Australian Paralympian, has died after a quad bike accident on his farm.

Ashley had been a stalwart on the Australian team for many years and a keen opponent for the GB team. All GB athletes considered him a good friend and a fine ambassador for the sport. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

GB will ensure that there is a fitting tribute to Ashley at the IPC Shooting World Cup starting on the 30th March at Stoke Mandeville, where an Australian team will be present.

Athletes take part in Public Speaking Workshop

Across the month of January, seven current members of Disability Shooting Great Britain’s World Class Programme squad took part in a 2-part public speaking workshop, funded by UK Sport.

The workshop, which took place at Stoke Mandeville Stadium, was designed to support the shooters to develop their ability to craft and deliver their story, and to increase their confidence to seek out and undertake public speaking opportunities.

The workshop co-ordinated by EIS Performance Lifestyle Advisor Emma Groome, was delivered by Sean Wilton. Sean a professional actor, who also works as a coaching and training consultant, has worked with a range of Olympic and Paralympic athletes on this topic.

Whilst the sessions took a ‘laugh and learn’ approach, they also involved everyone stepping truly beyond their comfort zone. In each session they had to deliver their story to their peer group, which allowed for expert and peer feedback. Each presentation was also filmed which allowed everyone to individually review their talk, and revise and improve it for the second session.

Lorraine Lambert, a podium potential shooter, said “The workshop has really boosted my confidence. It’s been great to get the assurance that we have stories that are worthwhile telling and to pick up some strategies and tips that we can use to tell them well”.

If you are interested in having an athlete attend and present at an upcoming event, please contact info@disabilityshooting-gb.org with your enquiry.