Media releases

Shooting Australia today congratulated the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) on its foresight and flexibility to approve a Commonwealth Shooting Championship in 2022.

Shooting Australia said the CGF’s decision to endorse Commonwealth sports shooting and archery championships in Chandigarh, the capital of the northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, in January 2022 has delighted shooting athletes and its member organisations.

The shooting and archery events will be held in India prior to the Commonwealth Games which will be held in Birmingham, England, from 27 July – 7 August 2022.

The CGF stated the Chandigarh 2022 and Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth sports championships will be two separately organised and funded Commonwealth sport events.

The CGF also added that medals won in India will be included as part of the medal table one week after the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony.

Shooting Australia President, Cath Fettell, said the CGF’s decision has delighted athletes and its member organisations.

“Shooting has a long and proud history within the Commonwealth sports movement and the decision by the CGF is warmly welcomed by Shooting Australia and the wider target sports shooting community,” said Ms Fettell.

“Representing Australia at a Commonwealth event is a major international career ambition for our athletes, and we are delighted they will again have the opportunity in 2022,” added Ms Fettell.

Shooting Australia High Performance Director, Adam Sachs, said the 2022 Commonwealth event represents a significant competition target for Australian shooting athletes.

“Shooting is world class and highly competitive among the Commonwealth nations and the staging of this event will assist in the preparation for future international events including the 2024 Olympic Games to be held in Paris,” said Sachs.

Further information: Greg Campbell, PRISM Strategic Communications, Ph: 0418 239 139

Dan Repacholi staked a decisive early claim for selection to a fifth Olympic Games when winning the first men’s 10m Air Pistol final in the Tokyo Olympic Games pistol nomination event at the Brisbane International Shooting Centre today.

The big, burly pistol athlete from Cessnock in NSW showed his class when scoring 240.1 points ahead West Australians Bailey Groves (234.5) and Mike Giustiniano (211.9).

Earlier, Repacholi qualified for the final with an impressive score of 569 – six shots ahead of Groves (563).

Repacholi attended the 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games without returning home with a medal and, if he wins selection for Tokyo, is hellbent on adding to Australia’s medal tally.

Repacholi indicated that he would retire after winning the men’s 10m Air Pistol gold medal at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, but the lure of another Olympics proved to be too powerful.

“I’m not spending all this time away from my beautiful wife and kids just to get another tracksuit,” said Repacholi.

“I’ve got enough of them. I want to win and stand on the dais,” he said.

Repacholi said he has been working on ensuring he begins his finals in strong fashion.

“I got away to a good start today but the last few shots weren’t what I was after,” he said.

In the women’s 25m Pistol final, Victoria’s Elena Galiabovitch (28 targets) claimed her second gold medal of the weekend when scoring a comfortable victory ahead of South Australia’s Alison Heinrich (21) and Queensland’s Civon Smith (16).

Galiabovitch won the women’s 10m Air Pistol on Friday and was runner-up in the event yesterday.

Galiabovitch, a 2016 Rio Olympian, qualified for the final in second position after completing the session behind Smith.

The Melbourne doctor, who won the silver medal in the event at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, found the right medicine for the final while Smith was unable to match her qualifying form.

The pistol shooters will contest the next round of the Olympic Games nomination events in Brisbane on March 6, 7 and 8.

Victoria’s Sergei Evglevski took an important first step towards his Olympic dream when winning the gold medal in the men’s 25m Rapid Fire pistol in the Tokyo Olympic Games nomination trials at the Brisbane International Shooting Centre today.

In the first of two Tokyo Olympic Games 25m Rapid Fire Pistol events to be held this weekend, Evglevski recorded 31 points to defeat ACT’s Thomas Ashmore (24 points) with West Australia’s Scott Anderson (18) earning the bronze medal.

Evglevski, who won the silver medal in the event at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, is the son of six-time Olympian Lalita Yauhleuskaya and he is aiming to follow in his mother’s sizeable Olympic footsteps.

The final was delayed by two hours because of technical issues and had to be moved to a different site, before there was another 20 minute technical disruption midway through the decider.

“That wasn’t ideal, but you have to deal with things like that. I just tried to forget about it,” said Evglevski.

Evglevski said he felt comfortable in the final and used motivational phrases to maintain his concentration.

“I told myself to be tougher and push harder,” he said. “But I think I lost focus after the second interruption.”

Evglevski fired a world class qualifying score of 583 points out of a possible 600, including consecutive rounds of 98, 99 and 98 out of 100 in the second stage.

“I wasn’t nervous, but I didn’t think my attitude was right in the first half of qualifying,” he said.

Earlier, Victoria’ Elena Galiabovitch, a 2016 Olympian and a 2018 Commonwealth Games silver and bronze medallist, claimed the women’s 10m Air Pistol in a dominant display.

Although qualifying second behind three-time Olympian, Queensland’s Dina Aspandiyarova, Galiabovitch was untroubled when registering 239.3 points to outshoot NSW’s Dannielle Moleman (235) and Aspandiyarova (212).

The highlight of Galiabovitch’s performance was a perfect 10.9 with six shots remaining.

Aspandiyarova seemed certain to earn the silver medal but fired a score of 8.2 with her second last shot.

Moleman jumped ahead of her with a brilliant 10.6 to avoid elimination and go into the race for the gold medal but was unable to overhaul.

Victoria’s Sergei Evglevski is aiming to build on his mother’s legacy when he competes in the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol when the Australian Olympic team nomination trials are held at the Brisbane International Shooting Centre between 21 and 23.

Evglevski’s mother, Lalita Yauhleuskaya, was a world class shooter who won a bronze medal in the women’s 25m Sport Pistol for her native Belarus at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games – four years after finishing eighth in the 10m Air Pistol at the Atlanta Games.

Yauhleuskaya became an Australian citizen after the Sydney Olympics and represented her new country at the 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympic Games.

She also represented Australia at the 2002 Manchester, 2006 Melbourne, 2010 Delhi, 2014 Glasgow and 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games where she won a total of seven gold, one silver and two bronze medals in a decorated career.

The Evglevski family’s Olympic association goes even deeper with Sergei’s father, Sergei Evglevski Snr., the gunsmith for the Australian team at the Sydney 2000 Olympics and on the Australian team coaching staff for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Evglevski, West Australia’s Bailey Groves and ACT’s Thomas Ashmore are challenging for one Australian Olympic team spot in the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol after registering a Minimum Qualification Scores when winning the Oceania Championship in Sydney last November.

Evglevski represented Australia at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games where he won silver in the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol.

“Winning a silver medal at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games was a big deal for me. The competition is a huge one for Australia and to be able to win a medal and do it in front of a huge crowd was a great feeling,” said Evglevski.

Evglevski was only three years old when his mother won her Olympic bronze medal but is driven to carve out his own Olympic career.

“Unfortunately, I do not have an Olympic memory, however flaunting Mum’s Olympic bronze medal at school is a memory I will always remember,” he said.

“My ambition is to reach and succeed at the pinnacle of shooting, which is the Olympic Games. Not only do I want to qualify, I want to succeed,” he added.

Evglevski isn’t the only pistol athlete looking to maintain an Olympic family association at the nomination trials.

Melbourne doctor, Elena Galiabovitch, is hoping to win selection for her second Olympic Games when she competes in the women’s 25m Sport Pistol and 10m Air Pistol events in which she won silver and bronze medals at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Keeping a close eye on her progress will be Galiabovitch’s father, Vladimir, who is the Australian National Pistol Coach for the Tokyo Games and was Pistol coach at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

One of Galiabovitch’s main rivals will be Queensland’s Dina Aspandiyarova who represented Australia at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympic Games.

Aspandiyarova is coached by her husband Anatoly Babushkin who was the Australian Olympic pistol coach at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.

Aspandiyarova competed at the Sydney 2000 Olympics for Kazakhstan where she finished sixth in the women’s 10m Air Pistol before moving to Australia with her husband in 2003.

She is looking to win selection for her third Australian Olympic team after competing at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics.

Last shot Dane has done it again.

Queensland’s Dane Sampson completed a clean sweep of the Tokyo Olympic Games nomination rifle events when recording another last gasp victory in the first men’s 3 Positions final at the Wingfield Rifle Range in Adelaide today.

Trailing South Australia’s Jack Rossiter by 0.5 points with two shots remaining in the standing section, Sampson shot a score of 9.9 while Rossiter fired a 9.5 to see his lead cut to just 0.1 points.

Then with the final shot, Sampson jumped to victory with a score of 10.5 while Rossiter managed a 10.2.

Sampson ultimately scored a total of 451.7 points ahead of Rossiter (451.5) with South Australia’s Alex Hoberg (439.4) taking the bronze medal.

Rossiter opened a 4.3 point margin over Sampson after the kneeling section, but the margin was reduced to 3.7 points after the prone shots.

Rossiter led by 1.8 points with four shots remaining but then wobbled with a score of 9.2 while Sampson fired a near perfect 10.8 to reduce the lead to 0.2.

Rossiter then extended the lead to 0.5 points with two shots left before Sampson stormed home to snatch victory.

Earlier in the championship, Sampson defeated Rossiter to win gold in the first men’s 10m Air Pistol final last Saturday before pipping Hoberg by a mere 0.1 points with his final shot to claim the second men’s 10m Air Pistol final last Sunday.

While delighted to be undefeated after the championship, Sampson believes he has yet to reach his best form.

“My scores could definitely be better. I’ve got plenty of work to do until the next event and make sure that I am well ahead of the others,” said Sampson.

In the women’s 3 Positions nomination event, Wollongong’s Maria Rebling bounced back after a disappointing qualifying event to win the gold medal.

Qualifying in fourth position, Rebling (434.4 points) maintained her composure in the closing stages of a tense final to defeat the South Australian pair of Emma Adams (431.9) and Katarina Kowplos (419.4).

Adams excelled in the kneeling section to open a 3.1 point lead over Rebling but slipped to be in third position behind Rebling and Kowplos after the prone.

Adams charged into contention with successive scores of 10.8 in standing but lapsed with a 9.1 while Rebling shot a score of 10.6 to retake control.

Despite her victory, Rebling lies in third position in the race for Olympic Games nomination after making a critical mistake in the qualifying round.

At the beginning of the prone qualifying section, Rebling thought she was in shooting mode but was in fact in sighting mode.

“Instead of pushing the red button, I pushed the green button and I thought I had started the match. I fired a 99 and I thought I was doing really well. It was a mistake I’ve not done before,” she said.

The rifle athletes will return to Adelaide on February 28 for the next stage of nomination events.

NSW’s James Willett prevented a double raid by international shooting athletes in the National trap finals when he overcame a poor qualification score to capture victory at the Newcastle Lake Macquarie Clay Target Club today.

Willett was the lowest ranked finalist but emerged victorious when scoring 45/50 to defeat Italy’s Angelo Scalzone (44/50) with NSW’s Thomas Grice (34/40) taking the bronze.

Earlier, New Zealand’s Natalie Rooney (39/50) also climbed from qualifying sixth to win the women’s trap final with Victorians Laetisha Scanlan (35/50) and Alexis Preston (27/40) the other placegetters.

Willett said he erred by wearing a darker pair of glasses when shooting 45/50 in the second qualifying round in the morning.

“I chose the wrong pair of glasses for the conditions and it was a bad round for me. I had to keep myself in front with the big number six qualifying number on my back,” said Willett.

“It’s one of the hardest venues to shoot at and I think the scores during the week reflected the difficulty,” he added.

Willett (242 points) has opened a four point lead in the race for Tokyo Olympic Games selection over Grice (238) with Victoria’s Mitch Iles (234) in third position.

Rooney was beaten by Australia’s Catherine Skinner in the gold medal shoot-off to at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and was then placed seventh behind Scanlan at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

But today Rooney overcame the light rain and dim light conditions to finally upstage her Trans-Tasman rivals.

Victoria’s Penny Smith shot another exceptional qualifying score of 115/125 but was unable to re-produce that form in the final where she was placed fourth.

Smith performed outstandingly in qualifying for the Commonwealth title earlier in the week and leads the race for Tokyo Olympic Games selection with 239 points, ahead of Scanlan (231) and Skinner (223).

Smith said the varying weather conditions this week made shooting difficult.

“It was a tough week all round. There were trying hot condition at the beginning of the week, torrential rain yesterday and misty rain today. But you got to do the best you can,” said Smith.

“But it’s been a good week for me. I definitely shot better in qualifying events than in the finals.

“I didn’t finish the week with any blue sashes or gold medals, but I was really happy to have qualifying scores of 116 and 115,” she added.

Smith said Rooney’s victory will give the Kiwi a boost ahead of the Tokyo Games.

“Nat is a great athlete but has struggled in recent times. But it was great to see her bounce back in her journey towards the Olympics and congratulations to her on her win today,” said Smith.

To win selection for the Tokyo Olympics, the three best scores from four selection events by athletes who have previously registered Minimum Quota Scores (MQS) will be considered.

Australia has two Olympic quota positions in men’s and women’s trap. The next Olympic trap and skeet selection event starts on February 27 at the Melbourne Gun Club.

Greg Campbell – PRISM Strategics Communications