Earlier in the week, Charlotte Kerwood narrowly missed out on the final of the Women's Trap, coming 10th after a seven way shoot-off for two places in the final.  Ed Ling was the best placed in the Men's Trap with 114 and 57th place.

Yesterday in incredibly high scoreing matches, Ken Parr was the highest placed Briton in the Men's Air Rifle, with a disappointing 587 and 69th place, although Neil Stirton - a novice at this event - set a new Personal Best of 585 in the MQS match.  Sheree Cox produced a steady 394 for 42nd place, her best performance at this level of competition.

Earlier today Mick Gault was 20th in the Men's 50m Pistol with 559.  Gorgs Geikie followed on from her British Record performance in Hannover two weeks ago with an excellent 578 in the Women's 25m Pistol for 17th place.

Tomorrow sees the qualification round of the Men's 50m Prone Rifle, with all three Britons through to the second stage after today's elimination rounds.  Jon Hammond produced an excellent 597 for 5th highest score in his relay, Graham Rudd also through in the same relay with 592, while Neil Stirton moved through with 591 in the second squad.

The 40th Grand Prix of Liberation in Pilsen, which commemorates the liberation of the city by American troops in May 1945, produced many excellent performances from the various British teams entered.  This competition, a regular for Welsh and Scottish teams for some years now, also attracted teams from England, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar this year.

Michelle Smith of England was the star of the show, winning the Women's Prone with a stunning score of 599, raising the British record - previously held jointly by Janet Howden, Helen Vincent and Johanne Brekke - by two points, and exceeding both the European and World Records, also 597, for this course of fire.  Michelle's score also contributed to one of three new British team records for England, combining with Sharon Lee (593) and Helen Babb (590) to win the team match and increase the team total to 1782, 14 points ahead of the record shot at the European Championships on the same range in 2003.

Sharon (580) and Michelle (578) then teamed up with Louise Minett (564) to raise the Women's 3P team record by an even larger margin of 36 points to 1722, beating the score set last June at Bisley by England.  Sharon qualified for the final in sixth place, where she remained after the additional ten shots.

The Men's Prone team record also fell, both England and Scotland beating the previous mark - set at the Nordic Championships in 2000.  The English team of Richard Wilson (596), Mike Babb (596) and Duncan Farmer (594) raised the team total to 1786, four points head of the previous mark, taking second place in the team event in the process.  The Scots, fourth in the team event, were rewarded with a new Scottish team record of 1784, with team members Neil Stirton (597), Jon Hammond (594) and Martin MacGill (592).  Neil's individual score took him into the final in sixth place, with Richard and Mike facing the newly introduced shoot-off for the remaining places in the final, which Mike reached in seventh place.  Neither man was able to hold of the charge of Austrian Mario Knoegler who climbed from eighth to fourth, leaving the two Britons to finish in seventh and eighth place respectively.

James Huckle raised the British Junior record for the Men's Three Positions match to 1159, raising his own record by one point, while the Scottish team of Jon Hammond (1152), Graham Rudd (1147) and Neil Stirton (1140) also raised the Scottish team record for the Men's Three Positions Match.

The England team also equalled the British team record in the Men's Air Rifle with James Huckle (591), Ken Parr (588) and Chris Hector (584) equalling the score set by England at Intershoot in 2005 on their way to third place in the team event.

At the beginning of this year, and commencing the current 4 year Olympic cycle, British Shooting was subject to a dramatic reduction in funding it receives from UK Sport for performance athletes.

British Shooting uses this funding in the preparation of elite shooters during an Olympic cycle in preparation for the next Olympic Games, of course currently London 2012.

 

The consequence of the reduction in funding means that a major review has had to take place regarding what was previously known as the ‘Performance Pathway’.  As a result of this review it became apparent that we could no longer afford the role of a full time Performance Director, which has subsequently led to the departure of John Leighton-Dyson.

A new Olympic Performance Group has been established to oversee the necessary changes, and this comprises of a representative from Clay Target – Ian Peel, a representative from Rifle & Pistol – Phil Scanlan, the three discipline head coaches, currently Kimmo Yli Jaskari, Peter Flippant, and Ian Coley, under the independent chairmanship of Roger Moreland.  Also present  will be the chairman of British Shooting, Phil Boakes, and a representative of UK Sport, currently Jon Austin. An additional representative vacancy exists, which will be filled by someone from outside the shooting sport, but with a performance background, ideally an Olympic athlete from another sport.

 

One of the immediate tasks of the group, under guidance from UK Sport, was to review the athletes currently on the Pathway, and with the new financial restrictions in place, some difficult decisions had to be taken. As a result, the group has decided there will be only two supported training groups going forward, based on individual athlete performances and coach recommendations. These will be Double Trap, comprising Richard Faulds, Steve Scott & Steve Walton,  and Men's Rifle, comprising Jon Hammond and Neil Stirton.

 

As the numbers of athletes are now significantly less than the original pathway programme, new selection policies will be published in order to take into account potential selection of non –supported athletes for all ISSF events including World Cups and European/World Championships. There will also be published a set of criteria needed in order to move onto the supported programme should funds allow, and subject to ratification by the Olympic Performance Group.

 

This has been a difficult transition for British Shooting and the performance pathway, particularly in the build up to a home Olympics. Our remaining coaches and/or Olympic Performance Group members will be in discussions with all those athletes who can no longer be supported on the Pathway as to how they can best be supported elsewhere, including Home Countries, TASS, independent sponsors etc.

 

Any further information will be circulated as and when it becomes available.