A strong weekend of competition in Sydney

The 2021 Shotgun endorsed event program concluded over the weekend with the Cecil Park Clay Target Club ISSF Grand Prix held at the Sydney International Shooting Centre. The event attracted approximately 50 competitors across the Trap and Skeet events who travelled from Victoria and New South Wales. Despite some challenging weather conditions, performances were solid resulting in a strong competition!

After day one in the trap event, Daniel Di Pietro led the field by one target on 72/75 with Gabe Sensi, Joey Yarak and Thomas Grice on 71/75. At the conclusion of 125 qualifying targets, with the final 50 targets shot on day two, a score of 112/125 guaranteed competitors a spot in the open semi finals. Di Pietro, Grice, Sensi and Yarak remained in the top four with Di Pietro and Grice tied on 118/125 requiring a shoot off to determine semi final bib numbers. Di Pietro was successful, claiming bib number 1. Sensi and Grice tied on 117/125 with Sensi winning a shoot of and claiming bib number 3. Acacio Mota, Robert Hall, Luke Cassar and Ashraf Dannaou rounded off the top 8 semi finalists.

At the conclusion of the semi final, Sensi, Grice, Yarak and Mota qualified as the top four to contest the medal match and therefore determine 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. Sensi’s game was strong taking 1st place with a medal match single barrel score of 30/35 and Grice two targets behind taking 2nd place with 28/35. Yarak placed 3rd with a score of 19/25. Mota finished in 4th place and the first to be eliminated from the medal match with a score of 10/15.

It was great to see a combination of VIC and NSW athletes in the medal match and two of these Junior competitors in Sensi and Mota. This event was also Sensi’s first win in a Shooting Australia endorsed trap event. Special mention also to Victorian Robert Hall who shot two rounds without a miss and achieving a personal best of 50 targets out of 50.

Into the skeet event and it was a battle between locals Joshua Bell and Frank Morris. After day one, Bell had a four target lead over Morris with 71 out of 75 targets. At the end of qualifying on day two, Morris closed the margin by two targets on 113/125 with Bell finishing on 115/125.

After a very close medal match, Morris was victorious finishing on 35/40 and claiming 1st place. Bell finished one target behind to take 2nd place on 34/40. Stephen Bell took 3rd place with 19/30 and in 4th place with Robert Faunt who was the first to be eliminated from the medal match with a score of 6/20.

Thank you to Cecil Park Clay Target Club for hosting this event and for all of the volunteers that ensured its smooth delivery.

It has been an enormous domestic endorsed shotgun program this year and Shooting Australia is truly appreciative for the willingness Clubs, State and National Associations had in hosting these events. We are looking forward to another great year of events in 2022.

Shooting Australia