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.