Gibraltar at the British Airgun Open Championship

Last weekend Gibraltar was represented at the British Airgun Open Championships held at Bisley. A team of 5 juniors and 4 seniors participated, including two new juniors.

Day 1 begun with the junior ladies Josie Yome and newbie Scarlett Cumming shooting the Open and the Aggregate 1 concurrently. Josie shot a 461/600 and Scarlett a very respectable 424/600, breaking into the 400s and achieving her personal best.
The second relay of the day consisted of junior men, where Jack Skillicorn achieved a 479/600 and Louis Fenske a 437/600. Newbie Sebastian Knock Collins had a bad start to his first international competition with a faulty gun, having to borrow a second gun to finish his shoot with a 368/600. And if this was not enough, Sebastian had to shoot aggregate 2, back to back with his previous match. However, this did not seem to deter Sebastian, putting in a 431/600, his personal best, and with a borrowed gun. Respect for this lad!

Day 2 started with the men’s seniors open championship concurrently shot with Aggregate 1, with Tony Desoto, Eddie Yome and Joseph Yome opening the days’ competitions. Joseph wrapped up his shoot first with a 499/600, followed a short while later by Eddie with a 475/600 and finally Tony with a 496/600. Good and respectable performances all round.
Ladies’ championships/aggregate 1 was headed by Heloise Mañasco. Last year she made it into the finals, competing officially with pistol for the first time. This year everyone stood transfixed on the live scoreboard, checking scores and tracking her position in relation to the other shooters whilst she performed. Alas, Heloise just missed her second year running finals by 6 points, finishing 9th! Yet another highly respectable day’s shooting for the team.
The third and final day was opened by Heloise and Josie, shooting their Aggregate 2 competition. And what a start to the day with great performances from both athletes. Josie started below her average, but it was not long before she had collected herself and begun to put in a string of strong series, recovering her lost points to finish her match with a 482 and keep true to her average. A great example of match management from a 12-year-old athlete and in her second only international competition.
Heloise began strong, with three ‘90s’ series, well in line to achieve a new Gibraltar Ladies 10m Air record. The whole team was excited, following shot by shot on the live screen, but unfortunately, a couple of poor series sentenced her match to a 525, 8 points behind the record. It is more than evident that the existing records’ days are numbered.
The rest of the team shot their Aggregate 2 matches together, with yet another nerve-racking match as we followed their scores up and down the ranking board. Final shots from everyone and the best match day for all athletes, with juniors Josie with a 482/600, Jack 483/600, Louis 472/600 and a Personal Best and Scarlett with a 367. It must be noted that Scarlett, in her first ever international completion, started badly but was able to make an impressive recovery with great strings of 8, 9s, and 10s. A real learning curve for her.
The seniors all did very well, with Tony finishing with a 521/600 and a Personal Best, Joseph with a 515/600, also a Personal Best and Eddie with a 464/600. All athletes improved their scores in their second match, and by large margins!
A great shooting weekend had by all, proud of the Gib Squad and their performances and behaviour on and off range. In August we plan to go to the Junior Championships in where most PBs and Gib Junior National Records will crumble.