Junior International 2013

In early August it was the 21st Junior International (JI) Shooting Competition held at Bisley. Attended by Great Britain, England, USA, Denmark, Germany, South Africa and others. The standard of shooting was very high with new match records and Personal Best (PB) being shot in nearly every match.

Jack Bale shot a PB of 1119 in 3 Position (3P) .22 small bore (kneeling, prone and standing) and got into the final in 3rd place, a challenging final with the only other GB shooter being Dean Bale against the USA. However Jack maintained his composure and achieved 3rd with Dean close behind in 4th and they got team Bronze for this event. Jack also got into the final for 3P 10 metre Air Rifle and ended with 3rd place and another team Bronze with Dean.

In 10 metre Air Rifle Men’s Dean has a new PB with 577 and got into the final in 1st place with Jack in 4th. Dean was up against strong competitors and ended the final in 3rd with Jack in 6th. They both got team silver for this event.

The Bale girls also had a very good JI with Emily the youngest getting through to the final in 50 metre Rifle 3P Woman’s match, she has only competed in this disciple once before and achieved a new PB with 529 and ended the final in 8th place. She also had a new PB in 10m 3P Air Rifle with a score of 566. Emily helped her team to Bronze medal with a score of 370 in 10m Air Rifle standing.

Then a change of discipline to Air Pistol and Philippa had two PB’s, 352 in 10m Air Pistol and 522 in 25m Sport Pistol which helped her team to achieve a Bronze medal. Philippa shot in the England team in the JI with the other England juniors.

Overall the Bales came home with 10 medals and gained great experience to help with future international competitions.