Britain’s shooters return from Croatia with World Championship medals
Britain’s top disability shooters have returned from the IPC Shooting World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia with two silver and two bronze medals.
There were also some top personal performances from the 14-strong squad of British shooters.
Paralympic champion Matt Skelhon won the individual bronze in the R3 10m air rifle prone SH1 mixed. He shot 600, which is equal to the world record, before shooting 104.6 in the finals to score 704.6 and finish third. Korea’s Jaeyong Sim shot 705.9 and Sangwon Jang shot 706.3 to win gold and silver.
These three were among six athletes who entered the finals having shot the perfect score of 600 – with Jona Jakobsson (Sweeden), Veronicka Vadovicova (Slovakia) and Natascha Hiltrop (Germany) also all shooting perfect qualification scores.
Britain’s Nathan Milgate and Deanna Coates, also competed and finished 7th and 21st respectively. All three athletes then combined to win Britain the team silver in the same event, with their total score of 1796. Gold went to Korea, with 1798 total score and bronze to Germany, with 1794.
Skelhon then followed up his individual bronze and team silver medal, with an individual silver in the 10m falling target rifle SH1 mixed.
The final GB medal of the championships was won in the R2 10m air rifle standing SH1 women’s team event. In the individual competition Deanna Coates shot 390 to qualify for the finals in 4th place. She then shot 100.4 in the finals and finished 6th. Gold went to Korea’s Yurni Lee, silver was won by Cuiping Zhang of China and Imyeon Kim of Korea took bronze.
Britain’s Karen Butler and Mandy Pankhurst finished shot 381 and placed 17th and 19th respectively. All three Brits however (Coates, Butler and Pankhurst) then combined to win the team bronze, with their total score of 1151. The gold was won by Korea with 1173 and China took silver, with a score of 1162.
Among the other top performances was Nathan Milgate in the R1 10m air rifle standing SH1 men. He shot 591 in the qualification rounds to enter the final in second place. He then shot 100.2 in the finals but just missed out on a podium spot, finishing in 4th place. Josef Neumaier won gold with a score of 695.5. Matt Skelhon also competed and finished in 6th place.
In the R5 10m air rifle prone SH2 mixed Hereford’s James Bevis scored a perfect 600 in the preliminary round, with 60 inner 10s. He then shot 105.3 in the finals for a total score of 705.3 but missed the medals finishing in 6th place. Gold was won by Serbia’s Dragan Ristic with a score of 706.6, silver was won by Hongxiang Yuan of China, with 706.2 and Korea’s Jie Liu won bronze with 706.
In the pistol shooting competition, there was a top performance from Adrian Bunclark, who finished 5th in the P5 standard Pistol 10m, while fellow Brit Chris Summerscales, finished 14th.
As well as a team bronze there was also a 10th and 11th place for Britain’s Karen Butler. She scored 582 in the R6 50m rifle shot prone SH1 mixed to finish 11th and 556 in the R8 50m sport rifle 3x20 SH1 women to finish 10th.
Head Coach and Team Manager of Disability Target Shooting Great Britain (DTSGB), Pasan Kularatne, said: “The standard of this championship was very high. There were more countries competing in these world championships than in the Beijing Paralympics and there were more people equaling world records as well as more new world records set. The overall scores were also on average higher than in Beijing. With this in mind, we all are very pleased with the results and the performance of all our athletes.
“I would like to thank the coaches and support staff in Croatia and appreciate all the work they do together with the work done by everybody else involved with DTSGB at every level. We would also would like to express our gratitude to staff of the Sports and Exercise Department at Bedfordshire University for the work they did to acclimatize our athletes in preparation for the World Championships.
“At the last world Championships in 2006 Britain reached the finals with one competitor, who finished in 5th place. However this year, the GB squad won 2 silver and 2 bronze medals, which shows how Disability Target Shooting Great Britain has progressed enormously over the last few years. I would like to acknowledge the investment and work from UK Sport and ParalympicsGB, without their help we would not be in the strong position in which we find ourselves today.”
IPC Shooting World Championships was held from 16 to 24 July at the Vrap?anski Potok Shooting Range in Zagreb, Croatia. There were 247 participants from 43 countries.