Allan Ritchie concluded his 3,601 mile round trip with his final competition at the WSPS World Championships in Lonato Italy from 4-6 October 2018

He had an excellent week training and competing in the first ever Para World Championships held in, what is considered by many, to be the best and hardest trap ground to compete at.

Day one qualification started shaky, but his second round saw him hit a 25/25 on the finals layout; the first 25 to be shot in the inaugural Para World Championships. He went in at the end of day one with the highest seated score giving him the honour of winning the Pieter Bortolin Trophy for his Category.

Day two saw a very early start and difficult light conditions. Two low rounds dropped him down the standings, but thankfully he made it through to the final. Again, another very poor start to the final, dropping six out if his first eight targets saw him in 6th place, the bottom of the pile.

He managed to pull it together over the next few rounds and sat in joint second for a while. This changed to joint third in the 4th place elimination round where he tied with the Cypriot athlete.

The joy of finals means you are stopped every round and told where you are ranked, this breaks up your rhythm and let’s you know where you are. This meant he was out on Bib number if he wasn’t ahead of the Cypriot. Unfortunately, Allan was tied for third at the end of the round, so was out in fourth place; leaving Allan absolutely gutted.

Allan did win a fantastic Team Gold for GB, along with team mates Bailey Paul and Matthew Goodwin