An eight-strong squad of Britain’s top disabled shooters travelled to Luxemburg last week to compete against able-bodied shooters in the RIAC and IBIS Cup and came away with a silver medal, junior silver and a junior bronze in the open events.

The squad also won four golds, a silver and a bronze in the disabled-specific competitions and registered several top performances.  

The event, which was organised by the Luxemburg Shooting Federation, had a unique format and allows athletes to compete in the same event on three consecutive days or a combination of events across the championships.

Paralympian Deanna Coates showed she was on fine form taking silver in the women’s air rifle competition, alongside able-bodied competitors.

On the first day of competition she finished the event in fourth place with a qualification score of 390 and a final score of 101.7. Her second day qualification score of 386 and the final score of 101.9 was only enough to see her finish in sixth place however on the final day of competition she shot 393 to get to the final round in third place but shot 101.2 in the finals to take silver overall.  Belgium’s Daisy De Bock took gold, while the bronze went to Luxemburg’s Carole Calmes.

Newcomer Mandy Pankhurst also competed in this event, which was her first international competition and she shot 368, 367 and 369 out of 400 across the three days, which is more than the Minimum Qualification Score (MQS) for a Paralympic Games.

Meanwhile Paralympic hopeful Nathan Milgate won silver and bronze in the junior 10m air rifle competition. On the first day the Herne Bay teenager shot 577 out of 600 to reach the finals in 3rd place, he then shot 97.3 in the final to take the bronze medal.

The following day he went one better and won the silver, having scored 584 in the qualification and 99.1 in the final.

In the disabled competitions youngster Georgina Callingham won gold in the women’s SH2 air rifle standing event, shooting 583 out of 600.

There was also a gold for Matthew Skelhon, who finished top in the SH1 10m air rifle prone event, with a PB score of 599 out of 600 and James Bevis who finished first in the SH 2 10m air rifle standing, ahead of fellow Brit Adam Fontain, who competing at his first international event won bronze.

On the second day of competition James Bevis then repeated this success in the SH 2 10m air rifle prone to take his second gold with a total score of 593 out of 600 with Adam Fontain going one better to this time take silver. He shot 592 out of 600 to finish second.

Fellow British newcomer Andy Faulkner shot 530, 531 and 533 out of 600 to finish 23rd among a field of top able-bodied shooters.

The RIAC Cup, sponsored by Ibis, took place in Luxemburg from December 5 to 8, 2007 and involved a total of 115 shooters from nine countries.

The full GB squad included Deanna Coates (Yateley, Hampshire), Mandy Pankhurst (Ash, Surrey) and Georgina Callingham (Bourne End, Bucks), Nathan Milgate (Herne Bay, Kent), Matthew Skelhon (Peterborough, Cambs), Adam Fontain (Basildon, Essex) James Bevis (Hereford), Andy Faulkner (Kingswingford, West Midlands).

Pasan Kularatne, Disability Target Shooting Great Britain (DTSGB) National Coach, said: “I am pleased with the overall performance of the team especially with the performances of Deanna and Matthew but also with the three new shooters – Mandy, Adam and Georgina – who were able to achieve minimum qualification scores (MQS) in their first international event.”