2015 was a good year for the Bale Team
Year 2015 was a busy year for all the Bale athletes, it started on the first weekend of the year with GB Junior Rifle Squad training and it was to carry on that way.Read on...
In January the first main event was at Bisley at the second stage of British Shooting’s Target Tokyo selection event in which they were looking for potential shooting athletes to progress to the GB Academy Program. Both Dean and Emily made it to the second stage and were selected to go through to stage three in April. January also saw Jack going twice to Dortmund, Germany with the GB Academy for training.At the end of the second training weekend Jack went to Intershoot 2015 at The Hague in Holland early February. Dean and Emily went to Intershoot with the GB Junior Rifle Squad and Philippa went with South East Regional Pistol Squad. All four had a good competition with Jack making three finals and taking a gold and silver medals, setting a new British Junior finals record of 205.3 and Dean making two finals. On the last day Dean was to take gold and Jack taking silver, further details may be found here.
Next, late February was the British Airgun Championships held at Bisley, once again all four were to take part, Dean and Emily in junior air rifle, Philippa in junior air pistol and Jack again entering the competition as a senior. Jack wanted to enter as a senior to take on the best in the country and made the final, but finishing 4th just outside the medals. He did win team gold for England with Dan Rivers and Ken Parr, he also won bronze in the confined match. Dean was to retain his title and trophy making him Junior 10m Air Rifle Champion 2015.
On to Easter weekend and it was to be a weekend in Cardiff at the third and final stage of the Target Tokyo selection. Dean and Emily had made it to this stage which was a two day event shooting both air and small-bore. Dean was to make it through this stage and was invited to join the GB Academy Program, Emily unfortunately didn’t make it this time, but she will be back for selection in the future as she won’t be beaten at this hurdle.
British Free Rifle held at Bisley on the 18th – 19th April which Jack, Dean and Emily have entered the last couple of years is a nice start to the small-bore .22 season. This year was challenging with the weather making it interesting. The wind was not only gusty but very variable in direction. All three entered both prone and 3P (kneeling, prone and standing), but 3P is their preference. Dean was to make it to the 3P final which is always a good final to watch and they have only a short time to change positions and adjust the rifle. Dean won the final with a score of 446.9 his best ever 3P final score and a new British Junior Finals record.
Next stop, Hanover, and to the International Shooting Competition of Hanover. Jack, Dean and Emily had been entered into 3P small-bore matches and into 10m air rifle; this time they did not make the finals, but they all enjoyed the competition. Now back on the airplane to Birmingham Airport, to make it back in time to the ESSU competition at Bisley for the last day and the 3P match.
At the ESSU competition Philippa started on the Saturday with 10m air pistol and then shot sport pistol on the Sunday. In 10m air pistol, Philippa shot 356, giving her 10th overall and 3rd in juniors. Jack, Dean and Emily came back for the last day of the ESSU competition to shoot the 3P match.
Dean was 2nd and Jack came 4th in the qualifying match giving them both a place in the final. Emily shot 551 in the women’s qualifying match to give her 7th and also a place in the final. In the Olympic Final Dean shot 440.2 giving him silver and 2nd place and Jack took bronze and 3rd place, gold and 1st place went to Dan Rivers 0.6 ahead of Dean.
The next match was the British 50m Championships at Bisley, Surrey. This competition is over three days, stating on Friday with the men’s prone eliminator match. Jack and Dean were on first, Dean made it through to the qualifier match, the only junior to do so by finishing 8th in the eliminator match. On Saturday it was an early start for the boys with an 8am call to the line for the men’s 3P match. The match was a challenging one with very bright sun in front. Dean shot well but not at his best with a score of 1132 placing him 3rd and into the final. Jack had to deal with the problem of another competitor firing two cross shots on his target. He dealt with it in his stride and shot 1126 finishing 4th and into the final. Dean and Jack were the only two juniors to make it through to the 3P final, Dean finished the final in 2nd overall and lead junior giving him British Men’s Junior 50m Champion. Emily also had a good shoot and in the prone she finished as lead junior and was to earn the title of British 50m Junior Prone Champion.
Jack went to Pilsen, Czech Republic to the young hopeful’s competition with a team from British Shooting.
Philippa attended Team England Academy trial weekend for selection to join the England Academy and was successful, so she progressed up the ladder into TENS Pistol Academy.
Jack and Dean went to the ISSF Junior Cup in Suhl, Germany. They were both entered into the 10m air rifle, prone and 3P small-bore matches. Whilst the standards were very high, Dean got his place in the 3P final, shooting his final standing string of 99 (x100) and winning on inner tens. This also was a new personal best of 1153.
August was to see them all take part in the Junior International and to take many awards again. There were individual gold and silver medals, team gold and silver medals and across the mixture disciplines, air pistol, air rifle and small-bore rifle. They all brought home medals and had a great week, full of hard work and long days. Jack and Dean were also in two teams that set new Men’s British Junior Team records, one in 50m 3P and one in 50m prone. It was a great competition, thank you to everyone involved.
Jack, Dean and Emily took part in Bisley week competing in the Double English and the 50m 3P on the first weekend. Dean retained the junior 3p cup that he won last year and they won club and county trophies.
There was no Welsh Airgun meeting this year due to the Rugby World Cup, a competition we look forward to attending in 2016.
Emily was put forward by British Shooting for TASS and was awarded it, she now trains at Exeter University with them.
Two competitions in November, one for Jack in Hungry at the Hungarian Open and the others took part in the Surrey Open. Jack was to win gold in the junior air rifle match and in the final he set a new British finals record of 208.3. Emily was to do well at the Surrey Open Women’s Air Rifle match finishing 3rd Bronze medal winner. Dean also did well winning gold medal and the trophy, finishing the final with a 10.4 lead.
Into December and the last competition of the year, a British Shooting selection match at Cardiff. Jack, Dean and Emily were invited and had a good competition, with Jack setting a new 10m Air Rifle Men’s Junior British record of 623.2. A good finish to the year.
After a break over Christmas we start all over again, to improve again on what they have achieved in 2015.
