The Scottish leg of the British Shooting Schools Pistol Competition took place at Bo’ness Recreation Centre on Wednesday, 25 October 2017. There were four individual qualification places and one team place in each category for the British Finals which take place at Stoke Mandeville Stadium on Wednesday, 17 January 2018.
Thirty-three competitors were competing across Junior, Intermediate and Senior Age Categories, with a qualification round followed by a final.
The Junior event started off the day and was hotly contested with Seona Scott (Stirling High School) coming out on top in Gold Medal position with a score of 199.3, followed by Silver for Toby Aberdeen (RGS Newcastle) on 181.9 and Bronze for Isobel MacTaggart (Jedburgh Grammar) on 162.6. Elspeth Wardman got the final qualification spot for the British Championships with a score of 137.7.
The Websters High School team of Douglas Wardman, Angus McGowan and Elspeth Wardman won the Gold Medal in the Team competition and qualify to represent Scotland at British Championships.
Next up saw an all-girls competition in the Intermediate Category. Emilia Faulkner (Hutcheson Grammar) had a great competition leading the qualification round and going on to win the Gold Medal in the finals with a score of 222.1. Stranraer Academy’s Emma Donnan and Susanna Service Shot well to secure Silver and Bronze respectively, with Anya Penderis (Dollar Academy) finishing in fourth place on 140.9 securing the last qualification spot for the British Finals.
Stranraer Academy won the Team Gold with their team of Emma Donnan, Susanna Service and Krissie Ramsey and qualify to represent Scotland at the British Finals.
The last event of the day was the Senior competition. This was an exciting competition with the top four places chopping and changing positions throughout the competition. The eventual winner was Kyla Dodd (Lockerbie Academy) who pipped her big sister to win Gold by 0.1 point with a score of 218.3. Kerstin Dodd (Lockerbie Academy) won Silver with a score of 218.2 with Kari Dougall (Durham School) taking Bronze with a score of 193.1. Connall Evans (Forres Academy) finished in fourth on 177.6 securing the last qualification spot for the British Finals.
Lockerbie Academy won the Gold Medal with their team of Kerstin Dodd, Kyla Dodd and Iona Ross, ahead of Forres Academy who won Silver, and they qualify for the Team competition at the British Championships where they can hopefully go on to defend their British title from last year.
We would like to thank all the volunteers, athletes and parents who made this such a successful competition and look forward to reporting on the British Championships in January.
The results from the competition can be found here