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Australia completed a memorable event with Victorians Mitchell Iles and Sergei Evglevski both winning gold medals and achieving Tokyo Olympic Games quota positions on the last day of the Oceania Championship at the Sydney International Shooting Centre today.

The two quota positions will see Australia occupy 15 places across all disciplines at next year’s Tokyo Games.

Iles, a 2016 Rio Olympian, captured the gold medal and an Oceania Junior Record in the Men’s Trap shooting 43 of 50 targets to defeat team-mate Daniel Di Pietro (39 targets) with New Zealand’s Owen Bennett (29 targets) winning the silver and bronze medals.

Shooting in high winds and with intermittent cloud cover, Iles maintained his concentration and composure throughout the final after opening with two perfect rounds of five shots.

“I’m absolutely wrapped to win and get a quota position. That was the goal, but the conditions were very tough. The wind was strong and gusty, and the light was in and out,” said 20-year old Iles.

The biggest shock of the event was the early elimination of Australia’s 2004 Athens Olympic Games bronze medallist, Adam Vella.

Vella entered the final as the highest ranked shooter after the morning qualification round but was the first of six shooters to be eliminated.

In the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol, Evglevski (30 points) was largely untroubled when winning gold with ACT’s Thomas Ashmore (22 points) and New Zealand’s Thomas Noble (15 points) winning the silver and bronze medals respectively.

Evglevski, 22, a silver medallist in the event at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, said he is now focused on the final Olympic selection trials in the New Year.

“I felt really comfortable in the final. I just concentrated on fulfilling all my technical aspects rather than worrying about my score and it worked well,” he said.

“I will go on a week’s holiday to Bali and then I will get back into full training leading into the selection trials,” he added.

The Championship ended on a high note for New Zealand with Natalie Rooney (37 targets) winning gold in the Women’s Trap when she defeated the Australian pair of Lisa Smith (33) and Breanna Collins (26).

Rooney, the Rio 2016 Olympic Games silver medallist behind Australia’s Catherine Skinner, held a one shot lead going into the final five shots and managed to hit four targets while Smith could only down one.

Prior to the Championships, Australian shooters Laetisha Scanlan and Penny Smith had claimed Tokyo Games quota positions in the Women’s Trap.

The Australian Olympic shooting team will be announced in March.

The Oceania Championships ran from 1 – 9 November at the Sydney International Shooting Centre in Cecil Park NSW. More information is available on the event website. Shooting Australia Facebook  and  Twitter  pages.

Greg Campbell – PRISM Strategics Communications

South Australian shooting athlete Jack Rossiter kept the gold medals in the family when winning the Men’s 50m Three Position Rifle final at the Oceania Championships at the Sydney International Shooting Centre today.

Rossiter, 22, convincingly won the final and registered a Tokyo Olympic Games quota score and is destined to join younger sister Tori in the Australian Olympic team.

Shooting in difficult gusty conditions, Rossiter set an Oceania record of 451.8 points to win gold ahead of Australian team-mate Alex Hoberg (445.3) with New Zealand’s Owen Bennett (423.3) claiming the bronze.

Rossiter held a three-point lead after the kneel section, but Hoberg peeled this back to 1.1 points after the prone.

In the final standing section, Rossiter defied the conditions to shoot two perfect 10.9 scores and a near perfect 10.8.

“I am very happy to win gold and get the quota. It always helps to get a 10.9, but it was a bonus to get two of them plus a 10.8,” said Rossiter.

“The conditions were quite tricky and I just focused on following the shooting routines that I had established in training. I just wanted to replicate those processes and maintain my concentration,” he said.

It was Rossiter’s second individual medal of the Championships after winning silver behind Hoberg in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle.

If selected in the Australian Olympic team, it will be Rossiter’s second Olympics having representing Australia at the 2016 Rio Games.

“If I get selected, I believe I will be able to perform much better than I did in Rio. I will know what to expect at an Olympics, how to prepare and how best to train,” he said.

Rossiter’s fellow South Australian Emma Adams also won a gold medal and achieved a quota score when winning the Women’s 50m Three Position Rifle final.

Adams showed her class when shooting a score of 444.7 to clearly outgun Victorian Elise Collier (434.4) and New Zealand’s Jess Burgess-Smith (422.8).

If selected for the Tokyo Games, it will be Adams’ first Olympic Games having previously represented Australia at the 2014 Glasgow and 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Tomorrow, the last day of the Championship, will see the final of the Men’s and Women’s Trap.

The Oceania Championships will run from 1 – 9 November at the Sydney International Shooting Centre in Cecil Park NSW. More information is available on the event website. Shooting Australia Facebook  and  Twitter  pages.

Greg Campbell – PRISM Strategics Communications

Australian shooting athlete Danielle Moleman produced a giant upset winning the gold medal with a borrowed pistol in the women’s 10m Air Pistol final at the Oceania Championships at the Sydney International Shooting Centre today.

A late inclusion in the Australian A team replacing Elena Galiabovitch, Moleman (238.1 points) shot superbly and held her nerve when defeating Australia’s three-time Olympian Dina Aspandiyarova (232.2) by a commanding 5.9 points with New Zealand’s Kayla Aylward claiming the bronze medal.

Moleman, a mother of three from Wentworth Falls in Sydney’s Blue Mountains, was ranked in bottom placed sixth position for the final after hindered by a pistol malfunction in the morning qualification round.

Borrowing a pistol from Australian team-mate Damien Dowling, Moleman commenced the final in blazing fashion averaging 10 points per shot in the first two rounds.

In contrast, Aspandiyarova struggled for accuracy and languished 7.1 points behind in fifth position and risked a shock early elimination.

Moleman faltered slightly the third last round to give the chasing Aspandiyarova a glimmer of hope but she finished confidently in the final two rounds to claim a decisive victory.

“My pistol just died at the beginning of the qualification round. There was an issue with the air compression, so we just grabbed the nearest available pistol,” said Moleman.

“Damien has massive hands and I had to make other technical adjustments just to be able to shoot with it.

“I was just hoping to win third place so I could take home the toy doll for my two-year old daughter. But I always manage to shoot well in finals,” she added.

However, the victory proved to be bitter sweet for Moleman.

Despite winning the gold medal, Moleman had not registered a Minimum Quota Score (MQS) to be eligible for selection in the Australian team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Both Aspandiyarova and Women’s 25m Womens Pistol gold medallist, Galiabovitch, achieved MQS in qualification and are eligible for Tokyo Games selection for the event.

“It was very unfortunate that I had the problems with my pistol as I believed I would have easily registered an MQS under normal circumstances,” said Moleman.

The next finals, the men’s and women’s 50m Three Position Rifle events, will be held on Thursday.

The Oceania Championships will run from 1 – 9 November at the Sydney International Shooting Centre in Cecil Park NSW. More information is available on the event website. Shooting Australia Facebook  and  Twitter  pages.

Greg Campbell – PRISM Strategics Communications

Queensland shooting athlete Paul Adams is on target for a second successive Olympic Games after a dominant performance in the Men’s Skeet final at the Oceania Championships at the Sydney International Shooting Centre today.

Adams, a nurse with the Navy Reserve in Brisbane, shot with surgical precision hitting 59 from 60 targets in the final to defeat Australian team Joshua Bell (52 targets) with experienced New Zealander Paul Wilson (39 targets) capturing the bronze.

Adams was thrilled with his performance which equalled the Oceania record and clinched a 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games quota position.

“I’ve been working my butt off in recent months and all the hard work paid off today,” said Adams.

“The quota place was the icing on the cake. I will now take a couple of weeks off and get ready for the final Olympic selection championships beginning in February.

“My aim is to win selection for Tokyo and reach the final and then we will see what happens from there,” he added.

WA’s Bailey Groves snared the gold medal and a Tokyo Olympic Games quota position with the final shot in a thrilling 10m Men’s Air Pistol final.

Groves (234.4 points) edged Australian team-mate Scott Anderson (234.3) by 0.1 point with four-time Olympian Daniel Repacholi (213.2) winning the bronze medal.

Anderson went into the final round with a 0.7 lead but could only manage 19.0 with his final two shots while Groves shot a gold medal winning 19.8.

“All my hard work has paid off. I’m still shaking in my boots,” said a relieved Groves.

“0.7 was a good lead for Scott and I knew it was going down to the last shot. There was a lot of pressure and the stakes were high.

“When I first looked at the scores, I thought we had tied and that we were going into a shoot-off. But then I looked at the decimal point and saw that I had won,” he said.

New Zealand’s Chloe Tipple won the first Kiwi gold medal of the Championship when dominating the Women’s Skeet Final.

Shooting is variable conditions, Tipple set a new Oceania record of 53 targets when proving too strong for the Australia pair of Laura Coles and Aislin Jones.

Tipple had secured a Tokyo Olympic quota position earlier this year for New Zealand, and Coles managed to grab the available Australian quota position for the Tokyo Olympics when registering a Minimum Quota Score.

Tomorrow will see the final of the 10m Women’s Air Pistol.

The Oceania Championships will run from 1 – 9 November at the Sydney International Shooting Centre in Cecil Park NSW. More information is available on the event website. Shooting Australia Facebook  and  Twitter  pages.

Greg Campbell – PRISM Strategics Communications

Australia claimed three Tokyo Olympic Games shooting athlete quota positions when South Australian teenagers Alex Hoberg and Tori Rossiter and Victoria’s Elena Galiabovitch won Oceania Championship titles at the Sydney International Shooting Centre today.

The trio took giant steps towards fulfilling their Tokyo Games selection ambitions when winning the respective 10m Men’s and Women’s Air Rifle finals and the women’s 25m Women’s Pistol with Minimum Qualification Scores (MQS).

Coming into the Men’s 10m Air Rifle final ranked third, Hoberg displayed nerves of steel to claim an Oceania Junior record to narrowly defeat fellow South Australian Jack Rossiter by 1.1 points.

Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Dane Sampson rounded off an all-South Australian podium when taking the bronze medal ahead of the New Zealand trio of Owen Bennett, Adrian Black and Shaun Jeffery.

Hoberg, 17, has been identified a rising shooting athlete since winning selection for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games where he was deprived of a medal after losing a shoot-off to India’s Ravi Kumar to be placed fourth.

The Wingfield Rifle Club shooter represented Australia at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Rio where he again narrowly missed a medal when placed fifth in the 10m Air Rifle.

Hoberg said he came into the Championship relaxed and confident of winning and claiming a Tokyo quota position for Australia.

“I had been shooting well in training, but I think I tried too hard in the qualification round. I kept telling myself that I could win and just do what I’ve been doing in training,” he said.

“Once I got into the lead after the first round in the final, my confidence rose and I managed to lead all the way,” he added.

“It’s a great relief to get a quota and I can now go into the 50m Three Position Rifle event on Thursday without any pressure,” he added.

Rossiter, 17, overcame a nervous start to overhaul Victoria’s Elise Collier and South Australia’s Emma Adams in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle . Her winning score was also a Oceania Senior and Junior record.

Rossiter managed 49.9 points after the first round and trailed Adams by 2.7 points.

“I realised I needed to pull my finger out, but I knew there was enough time to catch up. I knew if I could shoot at my best, that I could manage to win,” said Rossiter.

Like Hoberg, Rossiter represented Australia at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and the Rio Youth Olympics, where she finished fourth.

Rossiter’s next immediate priority are her Year 12 exams which begins at Adelaide’s Woodcroft College on Tuesday.

Galiabovitch appears destined for her second successive Olympic Games when comfortably winning the Women’s 25m Pistol final in another all-Australian medal clean sweep.

South Australia’s Alison Heinrich captured the silver medal after surviving a shoot-off with Queensland’s Civon Smith.

Galiabovitch, a Melbourne doctor, entered the final as the hot favourite and provided the best medicine from the outset with a perfect five from five shots in the opening round and was never headed.

“I happy with achieving a quota position – that was the goal. I tried to not fixate about getting the quota as it can become distracting. I just tried to focus on myself,” said Galiabovitch.

“I didn’t shoot as well as I had hoped, but I got the job done and, importantly, we got the quota position for Tokyo.” she added.

Tomorrow will see the the Men’s and Women’s Skeet finals plus the Men’s 10m Air Pistol.

The Oceania Championships will run from 1 – 9 November at the Sydney International Shooting Centre in Cecil Park NSW. More information is available on the event website. Shooting Australia Facebook  and  Twitter  pages.

Greg Campbell – PRISM Strategics Communications

14 quota positions for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are up for the taking  at the Sydney International Shooting Centre as 122 athletes from 6 Countries compete at the 2019 Oceania Shooting Championships 3-8 November.

Quota places are awarded to countries by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) based on the performances of their athletes at Olympic qualification events.

The 2019 Oceania Shooting Championships will feature Australia’s 2016 Rio Olympians Elena Galiabovitch (pistol), Daniel Repacholi (pistol), Jack Rossiter (rifle), Adam Vella (men’s trap), Mitchell Iles (men’s trap), Aislin Jones (women’s skeet) and Paul Adams (men’s skeet), plus Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games silver medallists Kerry Bell (men’s pistol) and Sergei Evglevski (men’s pistol).

The New Zealand team includes Rio silver medallist Natalie Rooney who will be seeking to avenge her defeat by Australia’s Catherine Skinner in the women’s trap final at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

The Oceania Championships will run from 1 – 9 November at the Sydney International Shooting Centre in Cecil Park NSW. More information is available on the event website. Shooting Australia Facebook  and  Twitter  pages. 

Australian shooting athletes will be vying for 14 event quota positions for next year’s Tokyo Olympic Games when the 2019 Oceania Shooting Championship is conducted at the Sydney International Shooting Centre between November 2-8.

Quota places are awarded to countries by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF), based on the performances of their athletes at Olympic qualification events.

To date, Australia has secured four Olympic quotas following outstanding performances by 2016 Rio Olympic Games representatives James Willett (men’s trap), Dane Sampson (men’s rifle) and Laetisha Scanlan (women’s trap), plus Penny Smith (women’s trap) in international competition over the past 12 months.

Australian shooting athletes yet to clinch quota positions include Rio Olympians Elena Galiabovitch (pistol), Daniel Repacholi (pistol), Jack Rossiter (rifle), Adam Vella (men’s trap), Mitchell Iles (men’s trap), Aislin Jones (women’s skeet) and Paul Adams (men’s skeet), plus Gold Coast 2018
Commonwealth Games silver medallists Kerry Bell (men’s pistol) and Sergei Evglevski (men’s pistol).

Repacholi, who will compete in the men’s 10m Air Pistol, is looking to win Olympic selection for his fifth successive Games after making his debut at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Another Olympic veteran aiming for Tokyo selection is Bruce Quick, who will compete in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol and the 50m Pistol.

If Quick can register a minimum qualification score (MQS) and ultimately win selection for Tokyo, it will be 12 years since his last Olympics having competed at the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Games.

The brother-sister pair of South Australians Jack and Victoria Rossiter are also looking to win Olympic selection. Jack was a member of shooting’s Rio Olympic Games team and he and Victoria had hoped to be both picked for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, but Jack missed selection.

Shooting Australia’s High Performance Director, Adam Sachs, said the Championship was the last chance for Australian athletes to win quota places for Tokyo.

“This is the final ISSF designated event for Australian shooting athletes. We will then use our domestic competitions in the New Year to finalise our Olympic team nominations which will be forwarded to the Australian Olympic Committee, prior to the final shooting team announcement on
March 27,” explained Sachs.

Willett, Scanlan and Smith have been permitted to miss the Oceania Championships. “They have had a busy year travelling and competing, and their coaches felt it was best for them to rest and recover before resuming training in preparation for the final team selection events early next year,” said Sachs.

Australia will field two teams at the Championships. Only A Team athletes will be permitted to progress to finals and win quotas. B Team athletes will not be eligible for finals but will be able to shoot for MQS places.

Sachs believes Australian shooting athletes will rise to the occasion and clinch most of the available Olympic quota positions at the Oceania Championships.

“We have a mixture of experienced athletes and highly talented younger athletes. It’s an exciting blend and we are confident that we can perform well and increase our Olympic quota numbers,” he said.

The Oceania Championships will involve competitors from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, New Caledonia, and Papua New Guinea.

The New Zealand team includes Natalie Rooney who won the silver medal behind Australian gold medallist Catherine Skinner in the women’s trap at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

The Oceania Championships will run from 1 – 9 November at the Sydney International Shooting Centre in Cecil Park NSW. More information is available on the event website. Shooting Australia Facebook  and  Twitter  pages.

Greg Campbell – PRISM Strategics Communications

All eyes will be on Para Shooting World Cup events in the United Arab Emirates and Peru next year following the conclusion of the 7 th World Shooting Para Sport Championships in Sydney.

Regarded as the best WSPS Championship ever staged, Australia completed the competition with Western Australia’s Anton Zappelli capturing a silver medal in the Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 event, behind gold medallist Matt Skelhon from Great Britain.

The other Australian highlight was ACT’s Scottie Brydon breaking the world record when qualifying in the PT1 Para Trap event.

Australian Para Shooting National Team Manager, Kurt Olsen, said there were good results achieved within the team.

“The championship has given us a strong indication of where we are at present, compared to the rest of the world, and we know where we want to be in the future,” said Olsen.

“For the shooters, it’s now guns down and refresh with family and friends before refocusing on events in the New Year as we build towards the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games,” he said.

The next international event for the Australian para shooters is the World Shooting Para Sport World Cup event in Al Ain in the UAE in March.

Then the World Cup Americas Championship will be held in Peru in May where two Tokyo Paralympic quota positions will be on offer.

Para trap is not included at the Tokyo Paralympic Games and the next event for these competitors is the 2020 World Shooting Para Sport Para Trap Championships in Lonato del Garda, Italy, next September.

“We know there is great potential within the squad, and we know what we have to do to achieve the necessary results,” said Olsen.

The championship will live forever in the memories of all shooters and officials said Kelly Wright, Shooting Australia’s Head of Marketing.

“It was an incredibly successful event and was very well received and regarded by all who attended. Many competitors said it was the best-ever World Championship,” said Wright.

“The range was first class and Sydney and Australia looked great throughout the event,” she added.

“It was the first time vision impaired shooting was included in the World Championship and this event was amazing.

“Right from the outset, we concentrated on making sure the championships was athlete-focused. We made sure important areas such as hotels, transport and food were right.

“The athletes were very appreciative of the efforts of the Organising Committee and the behind-the- scenes work done by staff and volunteers.

“The athletes were very gracious, and the spirit of the event will live on for many years to come,” she added.

The Sydney 2019 World Shooting Para Sport Championships was held from 12-19 October. News and photos are available on the event website. World Shooting Para Sport Facebook and Twitter pages.

Greg Campbell – PRISM Strategics Communications