Welsh Airgun Championship 2022 Report

Welsh Airgun Championships 2022

This Year’s Welsh Airgun Championships were held at the Sport Wales National Centre, Cardiff, from 3^rd to 6^th November. The championships consisted of several different competitions for Air Rifle and Air Pistol. The competitions were fully inclusive, athletes with a disability of classification SH1 competed against non-disabled athletes. There were also separate competitions for athletes classified SH2 and for SH1 prone.

New programme

The change of the format of the Finals by the ISSF necessitated a change to the programme this year. There is not enough time to run eight finals each day as was done last year.

The new programme introduced a pairs competition which was highly interesting due to a random draw a week before the competition, which was live streamed on social media.

Pistol

Open Championship

Leading the pistol in the men’s qualification round was Igors Aleksandrovs with an excellent score 568, however he was closely followed by James Miller with a score of 567. The standard of shooting was highly competitive which showed as the scores for the top 6 places was only 7 points. The top 8 athletes progress to the Elimination round and it was good to see a junior athlete, Sam Allen made the round with a score of 555.

In the elimination round, the high standards and talent levels continued to show as both James Miller and Kenneth Darling took the top two places in the round and went forward to the gold medal match. Pavelas Voitiukevicius took the bronze medal with a score of 244.8

In the gold medal match, both Darling and Miller battled it out for the top place. Darling came out on top with an excellent display and won the win 16 points to James’s 10.

In the Women’s Qualification, Lucy Evans (560) took top place with a 3 shot lead over Hannah Belshaw (557). Charlotte Hicks took third in the qualification with a 556. Again, same as the men the top 6 were only separated by a few points. 5 of the 8 athletes progressing to the Elimination round were juniors, highlighting the current strength of junior air pistol women.

In the elimination round, Charlotte Hicks showed excellent shooting and moved up to the top spot with a score of 242.6 closely followed by Lucy Evans who was only point 3 behind going into the final.

Francine Gilmore also improved her ranking position moving from 6^th in the qualification to secure the bronze medal with a score of 238.1.

Going into the women’s final, with the scores from the elimination ending so close, a competitive final was expected, and it did not disappoint. With the scores between Lucy and Charlotte set at 6 each. The final was set to be very close. Lucy however came out on top taking the gold medal with a score of 16 points to Charlotte’s 10 points.

In the mixed team pistol competition, the random draw element meant the athletes could be paired with anyone. The competition was split into junior and senior discipline. The 30-shot qualification score was shot concurrent with the first 30 shots of the Cardiff Grand Prix Competition.

In the senior team’s competition, Kerstin Dodd, and Kenneth Darling (559) managed a 3-point lead over Jess Liddon and Kjetil Knudsen. These teams would then battle it out for the gold medal in the final. The final was won by Dodd and Darling with a score of 16 to Liddon and Knudsen’s 10 points.

The bronze medal final was between Pavelas Voitiukevicius who was paired with Ingeborg Gran. They would compete against James Miller and Nathan Holden. Gran and Voitiukevicius scored a combined 552 in the qualification round, Miller and Holden were only 2 points behind. Both teams headed into the bronze medal match. The match was very close at the halfway point with Gran and Voitiukevicius leading 10 points to 8. However, Miller and Holden completed an excellent show and won the next 4 legs to win the match 16 – 10 and take home the bronze medal.

In the Junior teams, Lucy Banner and Lucy Evans scored a combined 560 in the qualification round to get into the gold medal match. Joining them in the final was Toby Aberdeen and Kathryn Holden who scored a 554 qualification score. The final was a tease final as Holden and Aberdeen took a 4-point lead and only needed to win one more round to win the gold medal. Banner and Evans had other ideas and won the last 3 rounds to win the gold medal 16 points to 14. In the Junior Bronze match, Kate Markham and Joseph Baker took home the medal after 16 points to 6 win, over Charlotte Hicks and May Brown.

Confined Championship

The Welsh confined air pistol championship was won by James Miller

Welsh AirOShoot Qualification

In the AirOShoot competition the gold and silver medal winners of each competition also win a quota place at the AirOShoot SuperFinal. The winner of the women’s competition was Imogen Reed, she improved her shooting throughout the competition and won the 16 points to 8 over Ingeborg Gran. Kerstin Dodd took home bronze with a score of 230.2 in the elimination round.

James Miller again added another medal to his successful week by winning the gold by defeating Nicholas Pye, 16 points to 4. Thomas Whyte-Venables won bronze after just failing 0.8 of a point short of a place in the final.

Junior men winner was Ayush Chauhan taking home the gold, Toby Meek won silver and Joseph Baker took Bronze after again just falling short of the gold final. Lucy Evans took gold in the junior women by defeating Francine Gilmore, 16 points to 12. Charlotte Hicks won the bronze with a 240.0 in the elimination round.

Cardiff Grand Prix

In the Grand prix, the format was best of 60 shots would take home the medals. This was again very competitive throughout.

James Miller continued his successful week by winning the gold in the senior Men’s. James scored 572., he was 7 points in front of David Owen who took silver and 9 points ahead of Thomas Whyte Venables who took bronze.

Jess Liddon won the gold in the women with some high scoring in her 60 shots, she finished with a score of 566, Kerstin Dodd took silver and Ingeborg Gran took bronze.

In the Junior Women’s competition, Charlotte Hicks took the gold medal with again some excellent shooting. Charlotte came away with a score of 564 from her 60 shots. She was followed by Lucy Evans who took the silver medal, with again another excellent score of 563. Emilia Faulkner was awarded the bronze for her 560.

The junior men’s competition, Toby Meek won the gold with 565. He was 4 points ahead of Joseph Baker, who took the silver with 561. Sam Allen won the bronze after some excellent shooting in his last 40 shots.

Rifle

Open Championship

In the men’s competition, Stephen Mitchell and Dean Bale battled it out with some great shooting to qualify for the top spot. Bale come out on top with a score of 628 with Mitchell who was only 6 points from him in second place. Mike Bamsey closely followed in third place with a score of 622.5. Two juniors, Bertie Galloway, and Aston Upton made the cut for the elimination round.

Going into the elimination round, Dean Bale continued his excellent form and took top spot and a place in the final with a score of 262.5, Joining him in the final would be Mike Bamsey with a score of 260.0. The final was won by Bale with some excellent match shooting, he won the final 17 points to 7. Stephen Mitchell took the bronze medal with a score of 257.2

In the Women’s competition, Ruth Mwandumba won the qualification round with a score of 622.2. She was closely followed by Amy Lott (619.5) and Olivia Hill (618.6). With only a few points separating these three, the elimination round was set to be a keenly contested match. Amy Lott come out on top with a score of 258.5 due to come excellent shooting in the earlier stages. Ruth Mwandumba finished closely behind with 257.3 to follow Amy into the final. Harley Raine took the bronze medal.

Amy Lott carried on her excellent display of shooting in the final match and comfortably won the women’s gold final 16 points to 4.

Also in the air rifle, was the mixed team competition, again this was split into junior and senior.

In the junior competition, Rhona Love and Zoe Perkin came out on top with a score of 601.0 but only just, as Bertie Galloway and Isabel Moore were closely behind with a score of 600.8. The final was won convincingly by Moore and Galloway as they won the gold medal with a score of 17 points to 11. The bronze medal was won by Sophie Page and Aston Upton as they won their match against Seren Thorne and Catherine Caborn.

In the senior final, Amy Lott continued her excellent form paired with Paul Guillou to come out on top of the senior qualification round, with a score of 606.2. Again, they were closely chased down by Michaela Green and Max Moore who were just 0.2 behind them. This set the gold medal match up to be another tight match. Amy continued to show her consistency throughout and paired together with Paul. Both ran away comfortable winners with a score of 16 points to 6.

In the bronze medal match, Craig Welsh and Andrea Guillou came out on top against Showie Brown and Dean Bale to take home the bronze, the score finished 17 points to 10.

The Championship WSPS events took place on Thursday afternoon. In the prone air rifle for SH1 athletes (R3), Alun Evans comfortably qualified with a score of 627.1 over Craig Welsh 621.6 and Richard Bray 617.6. Alun then continued his fine form with a gold medal win in the final with a score of 248.2. Craig Welsh secure silver with 246.4 and Paul Barker secured bronze with 224.3. In the SH2 R4 event Aled Griffiths won the gold medal.

Confined Championship

The Welsh confined air rifle championship was won by Mike Bamsey.

Welsh AirOShoot Qualification

The format for the rifle competition was the same as the pistol, each athlete gets 60 shots and chance to win quota places.  Junior men winner was Aston Upton after a very close and exciting final with Bertie Galloway. Finlay Love won bronze by scoring 241.4 in the elimination rounds.

Megan Bamsey won gold in the junior women by defeating Rhona Love 16 points to 6 in the final. Emily Smith secured bronze by scoring 246.1 in the elimination round. In the senior women, Ruth Mwandumba again secured another medal by defeating Harley Raine in the final 17-5. This topped off an excellent few days for Ruth. Michaela Green finished with the bronze medal.

The senior men, Dean Bale and Mike Bamsey again battled it out for the gold medal. Dean Bale come out on top this time to win gold. He won a very close and action packed final 16 points to 14. Craig Welsh added another medal to his tally by securing bronze.

Cardiff Grand Prix

In the rifle, Mike Bamsey took Gold in a very close match with Dean Bale. Mike scored a very good 626.3 and Dean finished with a 624.8. Stephen Mitchell won bronze with a 618.5.

In the women’s round, Ruth Mwandumba and Amy Lott again battled it out for gold and silver. Ruth came out on top to win gold with a 627.9. Harley Raine won Bronze with 614.6

Rhona Love won the junior women with a 610.9 and Aston Upton won the junior men with a 605.3

Table of Medallists

Volunteers and support staff

This championship meeting would be impossible to run without the top-class group of volunteers. We are fortunate to have ISSF A & B licence officials, some who travel from Germany and The Netherlands, as well as the farther reaches of the UK, who are willing to come and help for a week in Cardiff. We especially thank Scottish Target Shooting for the loan of targets and their support team. Our heartfelt thanks go to them all.

The Finals were shown live on YouTube and the recordings can be viewed on our YouTube page. The WTSF continue to be leading the way in showing our competition live and all around the world. The competition broadcasts had over 2000 views online.

The full set of results can be found on the WTSF website. https://wtsf.org.uk We welcome feedback on our events. If you would like to contact us, please email, [email protected]

Photos by Adam Rance (AR Media)