Summer Newsletter

Kata Kowplos at the Oceania Championships

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the first seasonal newsletter of 2020. We are grateful that you are here reading, listening, speaking, teaching and simply being part of the Shooting Australia community.

2019 finished big, with two international events, incredible achievements by past and present athletes, coaches, and officials, and of course preparations for the upcoming Olympic nomination period.

Please don't miss the communications review survey at the end.

Shooting Australia would also like to recognise the incredible work that our emergency services are doing to combat the devastating fires around Australia. We know that these fires are directly affecting people and properties from our community and our thoughts and best wishes goes out to those people that have been and are being affected by this national disaster.

Thank you for being here with us,

Enjoy the newsletter!

World Shooting Para Sport (WSPS) World Championships

Anton Zappelli winning silver at the Sydney 2019 WSPS World Championships.

In October, Shooting Australia hosted a very successful World Shooting Para Sport (WSPS) World Championships at SISC. With 485 participants from 55 National Para Committees, it was the largest Championships WSPS have held, and the largest quota allocation event for the Tokyo Paralympic Games, with only one more opportunity to win quota positions in 2020.

We had some outstanding results, Scottie Brydon setting a new qualifying world record in PT1 Mixed Trap, and Anton Zappelli winning a silver medal in 10m Air Rifle Prone.

It was the first Championships that have included all 3 disciplines, Rifle Pistol and Shotgun, and the first time including Visually Impaired (VI) Shooting, which was incredible to watch.

A special mention to Jamie and Shak for doing the Finals Commentating, to Damn Good for the live feed, Melanie Trapman for beautifully opening the Championships with our National Anthem, and of course, all the incredibly hard working volunteers who spent long hours at the range going above and beyond to ensure an efficient competition and a welcoming environment. 

2019 Awards of Excellence

2019 Shooting Australia AOE, from left: Breanna Collins, Renae Jones, Stephanise Pile

The Shooting Australia Awards of Excellence (AOE) is one night each year where we get to recognise and celebrate the incredible achievements in the last 12 months by our athletes, coaches, officials, clubs, teams and volunteers.

This year we also had the honour of recognising our ISSF athletes who have shot a world record score in the last 2 years:

• Paul Adams – Skeet Men: Equal final world record 59/60 at the 2018 Guadalajara World Cup
• James Willett – Trap Men: Qualifying world record 125/125 at the 2019 Acapulco World Cup
• Penny Smith and Mitch Iles – Trap Mixed Teams: Qualifying World Record 149/150 at the 2019 Acapulco World Cup
• Luke Argiro – Skeet Men: Qualifying world record 125/125 at the 2019 Al Ain World Cup
• Scottie Brydon – PT1 Mixed Trap Seated: Qualifying world record 113/125 at the 2019 Sydney World Championships

IPSWICH 2019 Club of the Year

We had the opportunity to chat with Glenn Rush from our Club of the Year winners, Ipswich and District Rifle Club Inc. This club has had an extremely successful 2019, with a strong strategic plan they are now implementing the second part of their 2020 vision. The club continuously participants in Come and Try with success, having several repeat participants and a steady membership growth of 5-10%. The goal of the club is to get people active and engaged in the sport, and they continue to seek further opportunities to enhance their facilities and provide structured routine sporting opportunities for their ever-growing membership base.

Coach Tip of the Season

Tricia Van Nus accepting her 2019 Shooting Australia Coach of the Year award

This season, coming into the hot and dry Australian summer, we have a tip from our Shooting Australia 2019 Coach of the Year – Tricia Van Nus

Whether you are wanting to move up a grade at Club level, or be the next National Champion, taking time over the summer to plan for your success, will reap rewards in the New Year.

Induction into the Hall of Fame

Russell Mark at the 2019 Sport Australia Gala Dinner

The last couple of months have seen two of Australia’s greatest shooting athletes recognised in an outstanding way. In October, Russell Mark, OAM was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame and just over a month later Libby Kosmala, OAM was inducted into the SA Sport Hall of Fame. Both these athletes have incredible stories, for more on their induction see below.

High Performance Recap

Luke Argiro and Frank Morris at the 2019 Oceania Championships

World Cup Final

There were 2 World Cup finals this year, one in Al Ain, UAE for the shotgun which saw 6 of our athletes competing, one in Putian, CHN for rifle and pistol where we had 1 pistol athlete compete.

In Shotgun, Laetisha Scanlan qualified in 2nd with a score of 122/125 and won the Silver Medal. Laetisha then placed 2nd in the President’s Trophy Mixed Teams with Lyndon Sosa from Luxemburg. James Willett qualified 5th for the Individual final and finished in 5th place. Catherine Skinner Won Gold in the President’s Trap Mixed Teams with Khaled Almudhaf from Kuwait. Luke Argiro won Gold with Caitlin Connor in the President’s Trophy Skeet Mixed Teams, and Penny Smith & Paul Adams placed 10th & 15th respectively in their Individual competitions.

Elena Galiabovitch represented Australia in the Putian World Cup Final where she finished with a score of 583/600 leaving her in 9th position, missing out on the final by six X ring shots.

Oceania

The Oceania Championships was a great success for our Australian team, winning 11 Quota places for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In shotgun we had Mitch Iles secure a Men’s Trap Quota and Paul Adams and Laura Coles secure the two Skeet Quotas. In Rifle, Alex Hoberg and Tori Rossitor won the 10m Air Quotas, and Jack Rossitor and Emma Adams won the Quota’s in 50m 3 Position. Pistol saw Dina Aspandiyarova and Bailey Groves secure 10m Air Quotas, Elena Galiabovitch winning the 25m Womens and Sergei Evglevski winning the 25m Rapid Fire quota.

Selection events for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games start in January 2020 with the ACTA ISSF National Championship, and finish with the SA Open at the end of March, click below for our full Calendar.

Instagram pic of season

This post really shows the strides Renae made throughout this year, with all the learning coming together to make an incredible Oceania's performance representing Australia. There’s no doubt she is going to continue to improve heading into 2020!

We love seeing and sharing your pics, make sure you tag @shootingaus in your next one!

Communication Review

We are currently undertaking a review of the communications that we use to connect with our community, it would be great to get your thoughts on your current experiences with the CEO report, this newsletter, the website and social media. Thank you for your time.

To keep up to date on everything Shooting Australia is doing, where our athletes are and what they’re doing, make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

I hope that you've found happiness and peace in the holiday season through your community and your loved ones.

Happy New Year,

From the team at Shooting Australia

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Shooting Australia is the peak body responsible for the growth, sustainability, and success of target shooting sports in Australia.