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GB Junior International
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01-08-2007 3:24pm#1
GB Junior International Website
Basicly, this is an international ISSF competition for junior shooters, taking place next week in Bisley. 165 competitors from all over the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Oldenburg (Germany), South Africa and the United States.
We have a team of eight (five shooters, three officials) and four more supporters in the entourage going over this Sunday for the week to compete in Junior Men's Air Rifle and Junior Women's Air Rifle.
I'll be taking the camera and the wireless broadband so look for updates during the week as we go.
Wish us luck!0
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By the way, I'm planning on putting updates and so on for this on my blog and on the NTSA website and in this thread, but we'll be hard at work there, so as much slack as you can please folks
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From On Target:GB Jr Intl 07 - Day Zero!
August 5th, 2007 by Sparks
Well, we made it here in one piece - eventually! - and everyone’s settled into their accommodations. A bit of changing around of rooms and so on when we got here, but you expect hiccups like that; and Matt and Geoff got far too little sleep on the way over with all the gear in the van, but they’re crashed out now catching up on that. The team’s in high spirits, we’re expecting a mass of shooters tomorrow (160 other shooters to compete against!) and the lemon meringue pie is excellent!
Some random shots from the day:
Check-in at Dublin airport.
Some of the entourage went for the patriotic green look…
Eddie and Shane in Gatwick
Where the heck are they? Marina waiting on the girls in Gatwick.
Damien waiting on the train in Gatwick train station.
More of Gatwick train station…
Geoff and Marina (Geoff’s on the left! ) at the Army Target Shooting Club in Bisley, home to Team Ireland for the next week or so.
Susan at the ATSC.
Team Ireland. Left to Right: Susan, Damien, Paula, Elizabeth, Shane.
Overshadowing everything here is the threat from the foot&mouth outbreak. The panic zone seems to be right up on top of us here in the camp, with all outdoor shooting shut down at present. The NRA (who run the camp) are saying that it’s a temporary measure and it’ll all be back to normal by Tuesday, in time to start preperations for Bisley Week on wednesday - we’ve all got our fingers crossed on that one.
And so to bed, much later than the shooter’s 2230 curfew… and up tomorrow at 0640 to kick the morning off with the first team breakfast!
From the NTSA website:IRISH JUNIOR SHOOTING TEAM ARRIVES AT GREAT BRITAIN JUNIOR INTERNATIONAL EVENT
National Target Shooting Association ltd
National Governing Body for Olympic Rifle & Pistol Target Shooting in Ireland
CONTACT DETAILS
Mark Dennehy
Secretary, NTSA
email: secretary@targetshootingireland.org
web: http://www.targetshootingireland.org
PHOTOS:
The Irish Junior Shooting Team. Left to Right: Susan Cunningham, Damien Fagan, Paula Cunningham, Elizabeth O'Hagan, Shane Flynn.
http://www.wilkinstowntargetshootingclub.org/photos/Events/2007/Aug5.GBJrIntl/DSCF4458.JPG
Susan Cunningham, Current Irish National Champion in Women's Air Rifle.
http://www.wilkinstowntargetshootingclub.org/photos/Events/2007/Aug5.GBJrIntl/DSCF4453.JPG
The Irish Junior Shooting Team. Front Row, Left to Right: Susan Cunningham, Paula Cunningham, Elizabeth O'Hagan. Back Row, Left to Right: Shane Flynn, Damien Fagan.
http://www.wilkinstowntargetshootingclub.org/photos/Events/2007/Aug5.GBJrIntl/DSCF4451.JPG
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
IRISH JUNIOR SHOOTING TEAM ARRIVES AT GREAT BRITAIN JUNIOR INTERNATIONAL EVENT
Bisley Camp, Surrey, UK, August 5 -- The Irish Junior Shooting Team arrived today in Bisley Camp to compete in the 15th Annual GB Junior International Event against 160 other shooters from Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England, Denmark, Germany, South Africa and the USA. The Irish Team will be competing in Junior Men's and Junior Women'sOlympic Air Rifle, shooting 60 (40 for the Junior Women) shots at a bulls-eye 0.9 millimetres across from ten metres away, with no telescopic sights.
Team spirits were high and the team is well prepared for the event. "The girls have never been so strong technically and the boys are right behind them" said Team Coach Geoff Cooney, "We've put a lot into the logistics and training for the match and now it's down to how well they hold their nerve on the line".
Overshadowing this year's preperation is the threat of Foot and Mouth disease on a neighbouring farm in Guilford. Bisley camp is currently on the edge of the official quarintine zone and rumours abound as to whether or not the zone will be expanded, or whether or not the event itself can go ahead. Worse still for the British shooting associations, Bisley Week, a week-long event that begins next weekend after the GB Junior International, and which is the largest event in the British calendar with thousands of shooters, may also fall victim to the Foot and Mouth outbreak.
Nevertheless, spirits here amongst tomorrow's Olympic Target Shooters are high and expectant of a reprieve for the event; the first day of which is tomorrow with Equipment Control checks and Official Training. Tuesday sees the Junior Men's Air Rifle event; Wednesday sees the Junior Women's Air Rifle event; and Thursday sees the Grand Prix event for both Junior Men and Junior Women, and the team returns to Dublin at 1945 on Friday night.
The Irish Junior Shooting Team is:
Team Officials:
Mark Dennehy, Team Manager
Geoff Cooney, Team Coach
Marina Cunningham, Team Childrens Officer
Team Shooters:
Women's Air Rifle:
Susan Cunningham (currently the Irish National Champion in Women's Air Rifle)
Paula Cunningham
Elizabeth O'Hagan
Men's Air Rifle:
Damien Fagan (currently the Irish National Champion in Men's Air Rifle)
Shane Flynn
ENDS
Photos going up in here.0 -
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A day late due to a technical fault folks, sorry 'bout that - I posted to my blog and to the NTSA website and to the media, but as I was posting here, my mobile broadband cut out. Seems to be happy again now however...
From the NTSA Website:
IRISH SHOOTING TEAM COMPLETES OFFICIAL TRAINING
Written by Mark Dennehy
Monday, 06 August 2007
National Target Shooting Association ltd
National Governing Body for Olympic Rifle & Pistol Target Shooting in Ireland
CONTACT DETAILS
Mark Dennehy
Secretary, NTSA
email: secretary@targetshootingireland.org
web: http://www.targetshootingireland.org
PHOTOS:
Elizabeth O'Hagan during official training for the GB Jr International 2007
http://www.wilkinstowntargetshootingclub.org/photos/Events/2007/Aug5.GBJrIntl/DSCF4501.JPG
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
IRISH SHOOTING TEAM COMPLETES OFFICIAL TRAINING
Bisley Camp, Surrey, UK, August 6 -- The Irish Junior Shooting Team today successfully negotiated equipment control checks and completed their official training for the GB Junior International event. Tomorrow sees the first shooters on the line from the Irish team, with Damien Fagan and Shane Flynn entering the Junior Men's Air Rifle event at 0820. Both shooters are anticipating their upcoming matches, and Team Coach Geoff Cooney believes both will do well: "Both Shane and Damien are ready for this match", Geoff said, "They have their technical routine down, all it comes down to now is the mental game on the day and they have their heads in the right place for that".
Wednesday will see the Junior Women take their places on the firing line, while the entire team will be entering the Grand Prix event this coming Thursday.
The Irish Junior Shooting Team is:
Team Officials:
Mark Dennehy, Team Manager
Geoff Cooney, Team Coach
Marina Cunningham, Team Childrens Officer
Team Shooters:
Women's Air Rifle:
Susan Cunningham (currently the Irish National Champion in Women's Air Rifle)
Paula Cunningham
Elizabeth O'Hagan
Men's Air Rifle:
Damien Fagan (currently the Irish National Champion in Men's Air Rifle)
Shane Flynn
ENDS
From On Target:GB Jr Intl 07 - Day One
August 6th, 2007 by Sparks
The first day of the event proper kicked off early this morning, with the team having breakfast together in the Surrey Rifle Club at 0730. Not quite bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but we perked up a bit after breakfast. At that point, the shooters and Marina headed back to their rooms to prepare their kitbags and transport them to the Lord Roberts Centre, and myself and Geoff headed for the LRC to check up on squadding times and the like as they’d not been finalised the night before. In the end, they wouldn’t be finalised until later that day, but it did give us the chance to find where equipment control was located and when the kit arrived, to get first place in line for equipment control. We’d also been fortunate enough to get picked to help with the air rifle range testing early that morning, so we wanted to make sure our shooters got through the control checks quickly. Turns out that, as is the case with all matches, an extra pair of hands was rather useful and so once we’d helped the other judges get equipment control ready, our shooters got through in jig time and headed off to their training.
Unfortunately for me, demonstrating ability is the fastest way to get assigned work.
Yeah, doesn’t look too streneous. Till you see the queue…
About 113 shooters later, I finally managed to catch up to Marina and Geoff and Matt to find that the shooting our team had been doing had gone very well and that official training was all well in hand. I left them to get on with what they do best and went off to sort out a few more paperwork glitches. I’ve come to believe this is the only way you can even hope to stay afloat at this game - let coaches coach and let the team manager handle all the little crap that pops up to bite you like meal tickets and booking gym time and keeping in touch with the organisers in case stuff changes and ensuring that everyone on the team gets told what of anything they need to know about. It’s a job made up of many small tasks and one goal - to ensure that the shooters have a smooth run of it.
And they didn’t have too rough a patch today. Official training went very well and they’re all ready for an early start tomorrow (the junior men start at 0830 so that’s them on the range by 0730 and in breakfast at 0700). However, the day’s shooting is over for us by noon, so everyone will have a chance to take a break easily enough. And we’ve had the first of our team evening briefings on the contents of today’s technical meeting and our iteniaries as they stand right now.
And now it’s nearly one in the morning and I’ve to be up for 0630. Gah! Some random shots before I hit the hay:
Matt and Elizabeth during training in the morning.
Paula’s official training.
Matt and Geoff watching official training for our team.
3P Air Rifle tables set up in the LRC
Technical meeting.0 -
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Sparks wrote:
Excellent work Sparks. I suspect the foot and mouth angle was what got us in the paper, but whatever works
Good luck today.0 -
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Go to http://www.gbjuniorsquad.co.uk/
When you enter the site, at the bottom left of the page is a link for 2006 results (Bit of updating needed ), it actually gives both the 2006 and 2007 results although the 2007 results are only up to the previous day. 0 -
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Results from the last two matches are in. More details later, but here's the important bit:
Women's Air Rifle : Susan Cunningham, Gold medal.
Men's Air Rifle : Damien Fagan, Gold medal.
And to make the presentations a bit nice, I got to put the medals round their necks Gotta tell ye lads, there's nothing quite so damn pleasant as hearing the anthem playing and that medal round an Irish neck 0 -
Well done to Susan and Damien and of course the rest of the team there. What an excellent achievement to come back with so many medals!
Well done all, we'll have the open-topped bus and the Taoiseach waiting at the airport.
I'm dreaming of course
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Some photos from the GB Juniors website: http://www.gbjuniorsquad.co.uk
Junior Womens Air Rifle winners.
Junior Womens Air Rifle team winners0 -
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From my blog:GB Junior International, homecoming
Well, my dreams of uninterrupted broadband access for the entire trip didn’t quite work out - for the last two days I wasn’t able to upload photos or access email. Oh well. Next year I’ll figure something else out.
For now though, we’re back, I’m 14 hours of sleep down and still feeling exhausted and I think I caught a headcold somehow (how? It was 30 degrees in the shade over there for heaven’s sake!) and I’ve a stack of work as tall as myself to get through.
But I’ll tell you this - it was worth it
Right, so starting with the bits I haven’t gotten through…
The men’s match was on the Tuesday morning:
Bloody crowded too!
Shane was up for this along with Damien:
Both did quite well, but the field was better than last year. Shane made it to the finals (his first international finals ever) with 567, but Damien was pipped by one place with 563 and just missed out.
Shane did climb up from 8th to 6th in the finals while being cheered on by the Irish supporters:
But in the last two shots, he was overtaken again and finished up back at 8th - but the important point was, he was there in the finals! And he set a PB doing it, so he received a certificate at the medals ceremony later that night.
And if you think shooting a finals is fairly easy and stress free…. well, don’t look behind you when you’re doing it!
And what are they all looking at? Your target, projected up on the wall so if you stuff it up, you have nowhere to hide! Mind you, you could just do what Shane did to cope with that…
The ladies match was the next day and our shooters shot very well - Paula Cunningham shot a personal best for this match
but she missed the finals by one place, leaving Elizabeth and Susan in the finals, with Susan in third place with a score so closely split with one of the GB shooters that they had to get to within one step of flipping a coin to split them according to the rules. Elizabeth didn’t have her best finals ever, but definitely finished in style with a 10.1 (and lots of loud cheering from the Irish continent), but Susan stole the show by moving up from fourth place to second to take the silver medal and actually reducing Matt and Geoff to tears (which isn’t something that happens all that often!).
Isn’t that a lovely sight?
And it got better but also worse - the next day saw the Grand Prix events, where Damien took Silver in the men’s match, but Shane suffered horribly on the line when nothing went right for him. That’s a rotten sensation, and there aren’t any target shooters who don’t know it intimately, but the good news is that it doesn’t last and there are always other matches.
The girls had a somewhat similar experience - all three moved up in the rankings but Paula and Elizabeth weren’t happy with their performances (though each put in 370 with Paula winning on countback, and both would have made the finals). Susan stole the show again by storming through to the gold medal position.
And that’s where I got my little treat, because I got nabbed by the NSRA to be the chap who hands out the medals during that night’s ceremony, so not only did I get to see one of our shooters win gold, I got to put it round her neck as well Now that’s a memory that’s going to last, and as soon as I get the photo of it sorted out, it’s going up here. For now, you’ll have to make do with this one:
continued...0 -
...continued
There were a lot of memorable images from the week, mostly happy ones from after the medals ceremonies:
Jim and his sister Liz after she won her ladies’ team silver medal
Susan winning her silver medal in the individuals,
Geoffrey’s Angels
And seeing these two bawling their eyes out after Susan took silver and the team took silver and then Damien took another silver and Susan took a gold!
And then there’s this shot of the Irish and Northern Irish teams posing together after winning their medals (the Northern Irish juniors won the team gold medal in the 50m prone match). It’s images like that that are the whole point of matches like these - all the juniors get to mingle, to have fun together and make friendships that ignore all the political bull**** and pretty soon, things just get better.
So that’s it for the GB Junior International for this year. Lots accomplished, lots learned, lots of ideas on how to do it better next year (yeah, I wouldn’t mind doing this again ), and lots of fun had. The juniors all get together in Cardiff again in November, I’m back to Bisley (with my rifle this time) in February for the British Open, and we’ll probably all do this again next August for the 16th GB Junior International.
Of course, first we have to try to have the first Irish Junior International…0 -
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