Irish National 50m Smallbore Rifle Championships

Sparks

From www.targetshootingireland.org:

The 50m National Championships took place over this weekend in the Comber Rifle club, and saw very tight competition indeed. Photos are already up on the website here.

The 3P championships on the Saturday saw the usual low turnout, alas. Of course, 3P is the most demanding of the shooting sports, with a full match taking over four hours, and requiring a great deal of training and equipment. Nevertheless, it would be nice to see more competitors!


Declan Kelly 99 99 97 97 392 86 86 88 90 350 92 89 91 85 357 1099
Richard Stapleton 98 96 97 96 387 87 84 87 87 345 86 91 88 92 357 1089
Ray Kane 90 94 90 92 366 82 0 448 DNF


Congratulations go to Declan Kelly, of DRC, for taking the Gold medal in the 3P championships with 1099 and to Richard Stapleton of WTSC for taking the Silver with 1089.

Later that day, an additional registered prone 50m match was shot, with a moderate turnout of seven shooters. Congratulations to Davy Gaw, Robert Barclay and Don Baker who took first, second and third places there with 581, 579 and 576.


1 D. Gaw 97 98 96 95 97 98 581
2 R Barclay 95 99 99 95 97 94 579
3 D. Baker 97 97 93 96 97 96 576
4 J O Donohoe 95 93 100 96 96 95 575
5 L Aiken 95 93 95 94 99 96 572
6 R. Clarke 95 97 93 94 94 96 569
7 L Fagan 94 94 96 95 93 96 568


The championships in prone 50m on Sunday saw a larger turnout, with eighteen shooters from both the Republic and the North. Competition was fierce, with finalist scores ranging from Sandy Wilson's 587 down to a three-way tie with Joe O'Donohue, Robert Barclay and Alan Lewis on 582.


1 Sandy Wilson 98 98 97 98 100 96 587
2 Louise Aiken 95 98 98 97 98 99 585
3 Davy Gaw 98 97 97 99 94 99 584
4 Ewan Bell 95 97 99 99 97 96 583
5 Richard Stapleton jr. 96 96 97 97 98 99 583
6 Joe O Donohoe 96 98 95 97 99 97 582
7 Alan Lewis 100 97 95 98 95 97 582
8 Robert Barclay 98 97 97 96 98 96 582
9 Ray Kane 98 95 97 98 93 97 578
10 Rhona Barry 96 98 95 94 98 96 577
11 Leslie Fagan 92 97 97 97 95 96 574
12 PJ Harding 93 98 98 98 94 93 574
13 Rowan Conway 96 98 94 99 91 95 573
14 Don Baker 96 98 96 93 93 96 572
15 Michele Heaney 94 97 96 97 94 94 572
16 Robert Clarke 96 97 95 96 94 94 572
17 Declan Kelly 95 97 96 93 94 96 571
18 John Walsh 90 95 93 94 95 90 557


The finals were no less competitive, and saw an upset with Sandy Wilson knocked from the lead position to third place. Davy Gaw climbed from third to second place, but Louise Aiken proved to be the hungrier shooter, taking the gold medal by 2.5 points, having come in three points behind the leader. The gap between second and third, at 0.3 of a point, shows how tight the match really was.



Fourth and fifth places, 0.5 points behind Sandy, were a tie between Alan Lewis and Joe O'Donohue, however Alan conceded to Joe in light of the lateness of the hour, rather than proceed with the shoot-off. Richard Stapleton was 0.3 points behind Alan and Joe, Ewan Bell came in 1.7 points lower in seventh place and Robert Barclay, following a disappointing finals for him, took eighth place 2.7 points below Ewan.


Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 SubTotal Total
Louise Aiken 10.1 10.3 10.5 9.5 10.5 9.5 10.8 10.5 10.1 10.9 102.7 687.7
Davy Gaw 9.9 10.3 10.5 10.1 9.8 9.8 9.9 9.8 10.7 10.4 101.2 685.2
Sandy Wilson 10 9.7 10 10.8 9.3 9.8 9.4 10.7 9.4 8.8 97.9 684.9
Joe O Donohoe 9.9 10.2 10.6 9.1 10.5 10.5 10.4 10.4 10.8 10 102.4 684.4
Alan Lewis 10.9 10.6 10.1 10 9.9 10.4 10.8 10.6 10 9.1 102.4 684.4
Richard Stapleton jr. 9.9 10.2 9.2 10.8 9.8 10.7 9.7 10.5 10.2 10.1 101.1 684.1
Ewan Bell 9.7 10 10.5 10 9.5 9.4 9.6 10.4 10.5 9.6 99.2 682.2
Robert Barclay 9.7 10 9.5 10.7 10.2 10.1 8.6 9.7 10.2 8.8 97.5 679.5


As you can see, a very tightly fought match indeed. The NTSA wishes to extend it's congratulations to the winners, and especially to Ireland's 2004 50m champion, Lousie Aiken.