2016 a successful year for TeamBale
Another busy year for the Bale team, taking them to many competitions home and abroad. They competed in Germany, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, Estonia and the home countries to name but a few. A year in which saw between them, win thirteen trophies, and sixteen medals, a successful year in all. In November Jack was welcomed by Team England as a Team England Shooting Athlete Ambassador.
The start of the year was Intershoot in the Netherlands, always an excellent competition to take part in and all four of them competed. Jack though still a junior, decided he wanted to compete as a senior to take his competition to the next level; he wanted to compete against the Olympic medallists that were competing this year. Then next was the British Airgun Open at Bisley. This was again another competition that all four Bale athletes compete, Jack was to medal in the Senior Men’s Air Rifle and Dean to medal in the Junior Men’s Air Rifle Championships. February was a busy month with Jack then going to the 10M Air European Championships in Gyor Hungry, he again competed as a senior. Jack had a good shoot, getting a qualifying score of 622.1. He also competed at this event in the Mixed Team Air Rifle match with Seonaid McIntosh with the pair finishing thirteenth just point eight outside the final.
Move on to March it was off to Falkirk for the Scottish Air Rifle Championships. They had never competed in Scotland before and we all enjoyed it. Jack and Dean did well in the Men’s Championships, making it an exciting competition to watch when they finished with 0.1 between them, Dean taking Gold and Jack taking Silver. Having had a busy February, March was just as busy, with Jack and Dean off to compete in the ISAS International in Dortmund. Both Jack and Dean medalled taking Bonze and Gold in 10m Air Rifle, they competed in 3X40 3 position and prone which they both did well in.
Having said we had not been to Scotland before competing, we were to make another trip to Edinburgh in April for them to train and compete in a British Shooting invitational match, first time to Edinburgh and a great city to see. To finish April, over the Bank Holiday weekend Jack, Emily and Philippa competed at the ESSU Championships and Dean went to the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl Germany. Unfortunately, Dean did not repeat the success in the 3X40 this year as he did last year when he made the final, perhaps he will in 2017 in his last year as a junior.
June always starts with the British 50m Championships at Bisley Jack, Dean and Emily have competed in this competition for a few years now and always enjoy it, and this year was no exception. Dean and Jack made the final in the Men’s 3X40 3 position with Dean taking the Gold Medal with a lead of 12.4 points. Emily has been concentrating more on her small-bore shooting and she enjoyed the competition. June saw Jack and Dean go to Tallinn, Estonia to compete in the European Junior 50m Rifle Championships. Jack and Dean competed in both 3X40 3 position and prone events, Dean narrowly missing out on the final by one point placing him ninth place. We are only halfway through the year and we have already done ten competitions.
July, they took a well-earned breather, before Jack Dean and Emily travelled to Jersey for a GB Talent and Academy training week. Philippa decided to take a break for the moment from competitive shooting, but has taken the opportunity to help with Disability Shooting at Stoke Mandeville, which she is really enjoying. Of course, August, they all watched the Rio 2016 Olympics even while traveling home from their own training events they watched Team GB compete. They all now have their aspirations set firmly on Commonwealth Games 2018 and Tokyo 2020 and are working extremely hard to get there. At the end of August Emily was selected to go to the Junior Nordic Championships in Trollhättan, Sweden. The trip was eventful to say the least, but once she got to the event she had a good time.
Moving on to September, Dean went to Bydgoszcz, Poland to the World University Shooting Championships. Dean did very well making it into the prone rifle final and finishing in seventh place. It was then back to join Jack and Emily to attend the Commonwealth Shooting Federation (European Division) Championships hosted by Wales this year. The CSF(ED) 50m rifle events were held at Tondu Target Shooting Club and the Airgun events were held at Sport Wales National Centre in Cardiff. The Championship events were held over three days, Jack and Dean were in the England Team and Emily competed in the England Development Team. Jack and Dean collected several medals for the England Team, well done. Emily shot well but the development team could not medal as they competed in the competition for the experience.
Now October saw a return of the Welsh Airgun Championships over three days, run in the same way as Intershoot, Netherlands in February. This match was missed in 2015 due to the Rugby World Cup. Great to see its return this year, it is always a great competition and very well run. Jack, Dean and Emily all winning medals, a good result for TeamBale, well done to you all. In October, Jack started the Bundesliga in Germany, this is a fortnightly match and Jack stays with his team in Germany.
Getting to the end of the year with two competitions left to go. One in November, the Surry Airgun open and the last of the year was RIAC in Luxemburg in December. Jack, Dean and Emily all competed in the Surry Airgun Open and Jack took a Gold for 10m Air Rifle. It was then one last competition for Emily, To the RIAC International in Stassen, Luxemburg. This was with a team of athletes selected from the GB Talent Squad, Emily has competed in this competition last year and looked forward to it this year. Emily had a good time at the competition and the Stassen markets.
So, a rest over the holidays and return to training for Emily at Lord Roberts Centre, Bisley and back to the Bundesliga for Jack on the 7th - 8th January 2017. What a busy year, but all the hard work was worth it, well done to you all. We would just like to say thank you to all the Coaches, Team Managers for their help, the volunteers and competition organisers that make it all happen, thank you to you all. See you in 2017.
