The arrival day for many of the team members (and from many countries) was seriously disrupted by the failure of the air traffic control computer system at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. This resulted in many athletes and coaches arriving at the wrong airport and the rest were certainly several hours late at the range. However, most people managed to get to equipment control and some were ready for an early start the next day.
The ESSU had entered three male and three female senior air rifle shooters along with six senior and two junior male pistol shooters and three senior and one junior female pistol shooters.
There were, of course, many other ESSU members shooting under GBR Talent (rifle), ATSC and SERPS. A special mention should be made of James Miller, a junior from SERPS, who shot three personal bests, improving on every match and making all three finals against some very stiff European competition and finishing no lower than 5th.
The standard in pistol was unsurprisingly high, with athletes from Mexico, Switzerland and Brazil, all of whom had won medals at the Rio Olympics.
Day 1 saw the best result for Kristian Callaghan, who had recently had six weeks off for his final year university exams, so a qualification in eighth place but finishing fourth in the final was very positive. Ian Jack also qualified in 7th place but finished 5th in the final. Waldeck Mickiewicz was only 2 points from one final although he qualified in another and Matt Reed was pleased to achieve his best score since last September.
In the juniors, Tom Whyte-Venables shot a PB by 8 points and would have made the senior final. He finished sixth in the junior final and continued with creditable, although nearer his average, scores on the following two days.
Sammy Darling qualified for all three finals, with her best qualifying score on the first day. She finished 5th, 6th and 4th in the three finals, respectively.
Day 2 ended with Waldeck Mickiewicz winning an individual bronze medal, having qualified 7th for the final. He was also part of the team with Kristian and Ian Jack who won silver after Hong Kong, China.
Tom Whyte-Venables missed the final on the second day by three X’s, showing the need for quality, not just the score.
On day 3, Ian Jack was the only ESSU Academy member to make a senior final, qualifying in 8th and finishing 7th. Max Stevens (junior), however, shot a PB by 4 points but unfortunately missed the final cut.
The senior girls had mixed results with the steadiest shoots from Shelley Moss. Steph Courty had to pull out after the first series on the second day due to tendinitis and did not shoot her third match. She had been unsure as to whether to travel at all and will, hopefully, make a speedy recovery.
Oliy Tozer, Richard Tector and Matt Reed all showed some flashes of brilliance, but Matt was the highest placed on the first day in 18th.
The rifle shooters had some steady shoots with Fabio Holder shooting almost identical scores on all three days. Alex McDonald also managed the same score (digital) on days one and two, improving by 0.1 on day three! Rex Moss had a good second day shoot at only his second international, adding twenty points to his best score in RIAC in December.
Pauline Thornton's first shoot was her best (always important when you only have one opportunity to perform!) whereas Sharon Lee's scores were very close on all three days. Hannah Pugsley only shot the last two days and improved considerably on her last shoot, finishing 16th.
Intershoot were celebrating 40 years this year and held a banquet in the function room at the range which was very well attended and the catering was excellent.
The full ESSU Team were:
Pistol:
Waldek Mickiewicz, Oliy Tozer, Richard Tector, Matthew Reed, Kristian Callaghan, Max Stevens, Thomas Whyte-Venables, Michael Arditti
Imogen Moss, Shelley Moss, Steph Courty, Sammy Darling
Rifle:
Alexander Macdonald, Rex Moss, Fabio Holder
Pauline Thornton, Hannah Pugsley, Sharon Lee
Coach:
Margaret Thomas
Additionally, Gail Rees and David Goodfellow were members of the international Jury
Full results can be found on: www.intershoot.nl
Report by Margaret Thomas
Match report from Gorgs Geikie:
The ESSU had a great Airgun representation at Intershoot 2016. The competition has now been running for 40years and this year was no exception to the slick and professional reputation that goes before it. Competitors from countries as far as Canada, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico and Egypt to name a few joined the field of over 260 competitors.
Intershoot has always been a great athlete development environment, with a number of our Members this year competing on the international stage for the their first time. One outstanding performance came from Hannah Glover from Braunton Shooting Club in Devon, who won the Gold for Air Pistol Junior on Day 1. In this category, Samantha Darling from Norwich City Shooting Club was consistent in attaining a Finals position (top 8) on each of the three days and Pippa Bale (Braunton Shooting Club) was a Finalist on Day 3.
Gorgs Geikie was our only Senior Ladies Finalist, coming 6th on Days 1 & 3, being only narrowly edged out on the last day in a very hotly contested Final.
From the Men's perspective Adrian Simms put in 3 rock solid performances in all of the Men's Finals to win a Bronze medals on each of the first two days and 4th Place on the last day. Kenneth Darling who has recently joined Holwell Shooting club due to being in his first year at Loughborough University, was our star Junior with a Finals place on all three days.
However, strength in depth shone through in both the Men's and Women's Team competitions with Gold & Bronze and Gold medals respectfully.
At the end of competition Pistol Team meeting,our Team Manager and ESSU Head Pistol Coach, George Darling, received particular thanks from the athletes for his contribution and support. "The atmosphere amongst the team was really positive, and InterShoot provided an environment where we could really learn and perform to our best. Also, thank you to everyone behind the scenes who made Intershoot work like clockwork," says Gorgs.
Our Chairman, Dave Goodfellow, attended and worked as ISSF Jury Chairman, assisted by another GBR Jury Member, Mrs Gail Rees of Surrey.
The British Airgun Championships is the next competition for many of these athletes, and we wish them well. We would also like to wish the very best of luck to Victoria Mullen, part of the Team England National Pistol Squad (TENS) who competes at the European Airgun Championships in Hungry at the end of the month, where the whole of Europe will be vying for the final Rio Olympic Quota Places.
Our Squad was:
Pistol:
Win Man, Iqbal Ubhi, Oliver Tozer, Adrian Syms, Matthew Reed, Jim Newsome, Kristian Callaghan, Waldek Mickiewicz, Imogen Moss, Victoria Tripney, Georgina Geikie, Imogen Sida Page, Christina Hales, Hannah Glover, Ashleigh Holmes, Ian Jack, Phillippa Bale, Nick Owen, Kenneth Darling, Samantha Darling, Michael Arditti,
Rifle:
Alex MacDonald, Sharon Lee
Team Manager / Pistol Coach
George Darling
In fact there were 76 athletes competing from the British Isles and, apart from the 23 shooting as ESSU, a further 24 ESSU Members represented different GBR organisations, viz: GBR Talent Squad, SERPS, Combined Services, GBR AMT (Army), and Great Britain (British Shooting).
Full results and photographs are on the event website: http://www.intershoot.nl/
Team Manager's report
I had the pleasure to be team manager/pistol coach for 20 pistol athletes and 2 rifle athletes (who were self contained and looked after themselves).
We had free training on the Wednesday so everyone had a chance to check their equipment and see what the range conditions were like. Also we had a technical meeting at 1800 hours, the only major problem being that the electronic targets kept failing due to a problem with the power supply to the target; however this was sorted out overnight by the manufacturers technical staff.
Thursday - the first detail was 08.15 Start time so shooters had to be on the range at 07.45, 0645 UK time, these were the women and women juniors followed by the men and male juniors at 09.45.
Day 1 finals.
Women: Georgia Geikie made the final with a 370, starting in 7th place improving one place to 6th.
Men: Adrian Syms shot 572 finished 3rd and Bronze behind 2 Brazilian Athletes. Kristian Callaghan also made the final with 568 and finished in 8th place.
Juniors: Hannah Glover 366, starting in 5th place and shot a very good final to win Gold with 190.8. Sammy Darling 371, starting in 3rd finished 5th in final.
Day 2
We had a lie in with a PM start once again ladies first,
Women: Finals Georgia Geikie just missing the final with 368 in 9th place. Samantha Darling made the final in 5th place dropping to 6th in the final.
Men: Adrian Syms was 4th with 568 going in and improved to take the bronze medal. Kristian Callagan also made the final with 568 but dropped to 8th place.
Junior men: Kenneth Darling 559 in the qualifying match at 4th dropped to 6th in the final.
Team matches
Women: ESSU England Gold,
Men: ESSU England A Gold and ESSU England C Bronze,
Day 3
The men had the early start today.
Men: Adrian Syms again shot well 572 the most consistent of our male athletes with a 4th place in the final.
Women: Georgia Geikie shot well 372, 4th dropping to 6th in the final.
Junior Men: Kenneth Darling again made the final 3rd with 6th place finish.
Junior Women: Samantha Darling 367 coming 8th in the final.
I would like to thank the team and support members for their efforts and support. This was a successful trip with many good performances.
George Darling
Team manager
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