Media releases

Tokyo Olympic Games team member, Sergei Evglevski, overcame the obstacle of competing remotely in Melbourne to claim the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol gold medal at the Brisbane Cup 2 championship held at the Brisbane International Shooting Centre today.

The Victorian COVID-19 lockdown prevented Evglevski and other Melbourne-based competitors from attending the championship in Brisbane, but they still managed to compete via video stream.

Despite not experiencing the competition in person, Evglevski (27 points) captured the gold medal when outpointing WA’s Bailey Groves (24 points) and ACT’s Thomas Ashmore (21 points).

Groves pushed Evglevski throughout the final and it took a perfect string of five points from five shots in the eighth and final round to clinch victory.

Earlier, Evglevski registered another world class qualifying score of 577 points to be the top ranked competitor in the final.

Also enjoying remote competition gold medal success was Victorian Elise Collier when teamed with Queenslander Dane Sampson to capture the Mixed 10m Air Rifle Pairs final.

With the first team to reach 16 points claiming the gold medal, Collier and Sampson edged aside the South Australian pair of Jack Rossiter and Emma Adams 16-12 in a high quality final.

The bronze medal was earned by Tokyo team-members Katarina Kowplos and Alex Hoberg who were too strong for Australian Para Sport pair, Queenslanders Natalie Smith and Glen McMurtrie, to win 16-8.

Earlier, Sampson earned his first gold medal of the day when triumphing in the Open 50m Rifle Prone final.

Sampson (247.8 points) scored a 1.2 point win over South Australians Jack Rossiter (246.6 points) and Andrew Sevelj (225.7 points).

The final also saw Rio Paralympian Anton Zappelli qualify for the final where he was placed fifth.

Tomorrow will see the finals of the men’s and women’s Skeet, the men’s and women’s Trap, the Open 10m Air Rifle, the men’s 10m Air Pistol and the women’s 25m Pistol.

South Australia’s Jack Rossiter turned the tables on his Tokyo Olympic Games team-mate, Dane Sampson, when capturing the Open 50m Rifle 3 Positions gold medal at the Brisbane Cup 2 championship today.

In a see-sawing final, Rossiter and Sampson were engaged in an enthralling battle before Rossiter clinched victory with a solid standing series of shots.

Sampson tallied 455.1 points to defeat Sampson (453.8 points) by 1.3 points with Victoria’s Elise Collier (437.4 points) collecting the bronze medal.

Rossiter was in great form during the kneeling series before Sampson surged back with an impressive prone round.

It was only the second time during this season’s Performance Series where Rossiter has outpointed the experienced Sampson.

Rossiter and Sampson will both contest the 50m Rifle 3 Positions event at the Tokyo Olympics.

With Covid restrictions preventing Victorian athletes from competing in person in Brisbane, pistol athlete Elena Galiabovitch was forced to compete remotely via video link from Melbourne and managed to win the women’s 10m Air Pistol.

Galiabovitch (237.6 points) proved too strong when outpointing her Tokyo team-mate Dina Aspandiyarova (234.5 points) and Queensland’s Civon Smith (214.7 points).

In the Mixed Trap final, the proven pair of Tokyo Olympians Penny Smith and Thomas Grice scored a comfortable 43-38 win over New Zealand’s Natalie Rooney and WA’s William Freni-Lizzi with Kiara Dean and Michael Coles earning the bronze medal.

Aspandiyarova and her fellow Olympian Dan Repacholi also warmed up for the Tokyo Games when winning the Mixed Pistol Pairs gold medal when defeating Ellie Rudder and Alamdar Dastani 16-14 with Lynda Buchanan and Bruce Favell placed third.

The current COVID-19 cluster in Greater Melbourne is a timely reminder to remain vigilant.  

With Brisbane Cup 2 (pistol and rifle) and the QCTA State Titles (Shotgun) to commence in just over a week, we ask that everyone who is intending on attending these events (competitors, family and friends, officials and volunteers) take personal responsibility for common-sense and widely promoted COVID-safe measures as well as complying with any Government Health Advice that may impact state borders.  

Shooting Australia continues to work through the Event Risk Management process with the Brisbane Cup 2 and QCTA State Titles Stakeholders and in accordance with the Event Risk Management Guidelines (https://shootingaustralia.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/COVID-Event-Risk-Guidelines-1.pdf).   

With this morning’s announcement that Victoria is to enter a 7 day circuit breaker lockdown from 11:59pm tonight (Thursday 27 May 2021) until 11.59pm Thursday 3 June, this will impact those Athletes from Victoria who have entered Brisbane Cup 2 or the QCTA State Titles, and who are not already in Queensland. We empathise with you at this time and hope that you remain safe. We also ask that you keep fully informed and aware of the extended list of exposure sites and any enforced restrictions or requirements by visiting https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/.  

Refunds will be offered to all Athletes who are now unavailable to attend either Brisbane Cup 2 or the QCTA State Titles.  

For Brisbane Cup 2 refunds: email [email protected] 

For QCTA State Titles refunds: email [email protected]  

For any COVID-10 related concerns, there is a 24/7 Coronavirus hotline available on 1800 675 398. Help and support options are also available at https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/getting-help.  

Despite the inability to attend for those within Victoria, both Brisbane Cup 2 and the QCTA State Titles will still proceed, and preparations will continue to this affect.  

The following measures will be put into place for anyone entering Queensland (current at the time of this communication) and we note that these are likely to change throughout today:

• From 1am AEST Wednesday 26 May – anyone arriving into Queensland who has been in the City of Whittlesea local government area on or since May 11 will go into hotel quarantine unless they have a valid exemption. 
• From 1am Thursday 27 May – everyone arriving from Victoria will be required to complete a border pass. Anyone of those arrivals who have been in the City of Whittlesea local government area on or since 11 May and are a non-resident will be turned away unless they have an exemption to enter the state. Queensland residents or those given an exemption to enter the state will go into hotel quarantine. 

Full and up to date QLD border restriction details can be accessed via https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-COVID-19/current-status/urgent-COVID-19-update . 

We have all experienced how quickly things can change in these COVID-times and how one infection can quickly become multiple. We also know that restrictions can be enforced or relaxed overnight and sometimes with short notice.  

Any further updates will be communicated, where applicable, as soon as they come to hand. 

At this time we also ask that you re-familiarise yourself with Shooting Australia’s COVID-19 guidelines (https://shootingaustralia.org/COVID-19-guidelines/ ) and: 

1. Do not attend an event if you are unwell 
2. Do not attend an event if you are required to self isolate 
3. Be vigilant with personal hygiene 
4. Register your attendance at the event each day 
5. Be vigilant when travelling 
6. Physical distance 
7. Familiarise yourself with COVID-safe plans 

Please contact Shooting Australia Event Coordinator Jane Vella ([email protected]) with any queries or alternatively for information on COVID-19, you can call the Australian Governments National Coronavirus Helpline on 1800 020 080. 

Sergei Evglevski spoiled the weekend birthday celebrations of his Tokyo Olympic Games team-mate, Dan Repacholi, when capturing the men’s 10m Air Pistol gold medal on the third and final day of the Brisbane Cup Rifle and Pistol Championship at the Brisbane International Shooting Centre today.

Repacholi, who turned 39 yesterday, appeared destined for his third gold medal of the Championship, after winning the Mixed 10m Air Pistol teams event and the 50m Pistol final, when comfortably topping the 10m Air Pistol morning qualification round.

However, in the final, it was Evglevski who rose to the top tallying 238.3 points to outlast Repacholi (237.3 points) and ACT’s Thomas Ashmore (213.4).

Evglevski’s win made it a Championship gold medal double for the Victorian after he triumphed in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol final yesterday.

South Australia’s Alison Heinrich scored the biggest upset of the day when winning the gold medal in the women’s 25m Sports Pistol final.

Heinrich, 24, performed impressively to register 28 points in the final to clearly defeat Queensland’s Civon Smith (24 points) with Tokyo Olympic Games representative, Elena Galiabovitch (19 points) placed third.

Heinrich took the lead after the fourth of 10 series of shots and maintained her concentration to grab her first Performance Series victory of the year.

South Australia’s Tori Rossiter continued to display her all-round versatility when winning the Open 50m Prone final.

Rossiter registered an impressive 252.2 points in defeating Queensland’s Dane Sampson (249.5 points) and Victoria’s Michael Davis (227.6 points).

Queensland’s Dane Sampson came within a whisker of breaking his third Australian National record in two months when winning the Open 10m Air Rifle gold medal at the Brisbane Cup Rifle and Pistol Championships at the Brisbane International Shooting Centre today.

Sampson, from Coominya, has twice broken the men’s 50m Rifle Three Positions Australian National record during this year’s Performance Series before being a mere 0.4 points off breaking his men’s 10m Air Rifle Final Australian National record today.

Sampson tallied 251.3 points to capture the gold medal by a narrow 0.9 point margin ahead of his Australian Tokyo Olympic Games team-mates, the South Australian pair of Jack Rossiter (250.4 points) and Katarina Kowplos (227.7 points).

While Sampson was unable to re-set a new men’s 10m Air Rifle Final record benchmark, his score would have easily won the gold medal at the 2018 World Championships.

Russia’s Sergey Kamenskiy was victorious at the 2018 World Championships with a score of 248.3 – a clear three points behind Sampson’s effort today.

The Open 10m Air Rifle Final was also noteworthy with Para Shooter, Queensland’s Glen McMurtrie qualifying for the Open final where he finished seventh.

Jack Rossiter later gained revenge over Sampson when he partnered with his sister Tori to win the Mixed 10m Air Rifle Teams event with a tense 16-14 victory over Sampson and Kowplos in the gold medal match. Victoria’s Elise Collier and South Australia’s Alex Hoberg won the bronze medal.

Victoria’s Sergei Evglevski showed his class again when claiming gold in the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol final.

After a shaky start where he was level with ACT’s Thomas Ashmore after the first three series of shots, Evglevski was a model of consistency in the remaining five series to tally 29 points, six clear of Ashmore (23 points) and Queensland’s Bruce Dimond (11 points).

NSW’s Dan Repacholi collected his second gold medal of the Championship when comfortably winning the 50m Pistol.

Repacholi, who won gold in the Mixed 10m Pistol Teams event yesterday, registered 542 points in beating Queensland’s Alfio Casagrande (517) by 25 points with NSW’s Damian Dowling (513 points) placed third.

Tomorrow’s third and final day of competition will see the Open 50m Rifle Prone, women’s 25m Sports Pistol and the men’s 10m Air Pistol finals.

Tokyo Olympic Games pistol team member, Dina Aspandiyarova, completed a confidence boosting gold medal double on day one of the Brisbane Cup Pistol and Rifle competition at the Brisbane International Shooting Centre today.

Aspandiyarova, a Brisbane local, used her home range experience to her advantage when winning the individual 10m Air Pistol and the Mixed 10m Air Pistol Pairs where she teamed-up alongside NSW’s four-time Olympian, Dan Repacholi.

Aspandiyarova will be attending her fourth Olympic Games in Tokyo having represented Australia at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics after winning selection for her native Kazakhstan at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Aspandiyarova registered her best 10m Air Pistol finals result of the 2021 Performance Series with a total of 237.5 points to overcome Victoria’s Elena Galiabovitch (235.7 points) by 1.8 points with Queensland’s Civon Smith (214.5 points) claiming the bronze medal.

Aspandiyarova and Repacholi later enjoyed an easy 16-2 win in the Mixed 10m Air Pistol Pairs over ACT’s Thomas Ashmore and South Australia’s Alison Heinrich. Julie Dunks and John Gray were the bronze medallists.

Another Queenslander, Dane Sampson, continued his dominance in the 50m Rifle Three Positions event with his sixth gold medal victory of the Performance Series.

Sampson, who will attend his third Olympics in Tokyo, registered 452.9 points to outclass Victoria’s Michael Davis (449.6 points) with South Australia’s Jack Rossiter (439.7 points) placed third.

In the Para Sport Open 10m Air Rifle final, 2016 Rio Paralympian Anton Zappelli performed brilliantly to defeat Queensland locals Glen McMurtrie and Natalie Smith.

West Australian Zappelli won the final shooting 253.7 points – 0.5 points better than the gold medal winning score by Great Britain’s Matt Skelhon at the 2019 World Shooting Para Sport championships in Sydney.

Zappelli and Smith have both won quota positions for Australia at the Tokyo Paralympic Games which commence in August.

Despite early pressure from McMurtrie (248.5 points), Zappelli displayed his class to win by a comfortable 5.2 points ahead of McMurtie with Smith (228.6 points) earning the bronze medal.

Tomorrow’s events will see the Open 10m Air Rifle, men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol and the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Teams finals.

Nine members of Australia’s 15-member Tokyo Olympic Games Shooting team will be in action when the Brisbane Cup for Rifle and Pistol athletes is conducted at the Brisbane International Shooting Centre at Belmont between May 14-16.

The Olympic team members will be joined in action from tomorrow by Australia’s top Para Shooting athletes who will be pressing their claims to win selection in the Australian team for the Tokyo Paralympic Games which commences in August.

The Brisbane Cup is the penultimate National Performance Series event for Australia’s Olympic Rifle and Pistol team members before the Tokyo Olympics which commences on July 23.

The Pistol team members in action are Dan Repacholi (NSW), who will contest his fifth Olympic Games in Tokyo, Elena Galiabovitch (Vic), Sergei Evglevski (Vic) and Brisbane local Dina Aspandiyarova (Qld) who will attend her fourth Olympics in Tokyo.

The Tokyo Rifle team members on show are Olympic debutants Elise Collier (Vic), Katarina Kowplos (SA) and Alex Hoberg (SA), and they will be joined by Jack Rossiter (SA) and Queenslander, Dane Sampson, who will be attending his third Olympics in July.

Sampson, from Coominya, is in hot form in the 50m Rifle Three Positions event having twice broken his Australian National record in recent months. He will also contest the 10m Air Rifle and Mixed 10m Air Rifle Teams event in Tokyo.

Sampson’s record score in the 50m Rifle Three Positions events at the Target Rifle South Australia Championships two weeks ago was superior to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and the 2018 World Championships gold medal winning scores set by Italy’s Niccolo Campriani (458.8 points) in 2016 and Poland’s Tomasz Bartnik (460.4 points) in 2018.

The Pistol team has prepared for the Brisbane Cup with a training camp at BISC this week under the direction of National Pistol Coach, Vladimir Galiabovitch.

The BISC range holds fond memories for Repacholi, Evglevski and Elena Galiabovitch who each won medals at the venue at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

The Para Sports Australian team athletes competing at BISC are Brisbane’s 2012 London Paralympic Games 10m Air Rifle bronze medallist, Natalie Smith, Brisbane Rifle athlete Glen McMurtrie, Bundaberg Pistol athlete Chris Pitt, and WA’s 2016 Rio Olympic Games Rifle competitor Anton Zappelli.

The Performance Series leaderboards and results can be viewed at Leaderboards – Shooting Australia

The Brisbane Cup event schedule is available here

Rio Olympian James Willett displayed his class to overcome a low qualification ranking to capture the men’s Trap gold medal in the Victorian ISSF Shotgun Championships in Echuca today.

Willett, who will compete at his second Olympic Games in Tokyo in July, entered the six-man final as the fifth qualifier but withstood the pressure to hit 45 of 50 targets in the final to defeat Victorians Todd Malone (42/50) and Joey Yarak (32/40).

It was Willett’s first Performance Series victory of the year after he was placed third at the Yarra Valley Grand Prix in March and elected not to attend the NSWCTA ISSF Championships two weeks ago.

Willett missed his opening target in the final today but was flawless in his next 19 shots to take a two target lead over Malone at the half-way mark and maintained a decisive lead for the remainder of the event.

“I was happy with the final and came away with a decent score in the end,” said Willett.

“Conditions were good, but it’s one of the tougher ranges to compete,” he added.

Willett was unconcerned with his low ranking in the final which could have seen him eliminated had he tied with another higher ranked athlete at the elimination stages.

“It didn’t really affect me. You go out to hit as many targets as you can and, if you do that, the bib number doesn’t come into play,” said Willett.

Rio 2016 Olympic Games gold medallist, Catherine Skinner, issued a reminder that she is still a major force winning the women’s Trap final when scoring a thrilling one target victory over Victorian junior competitor, Renae Jones.

Skinner, who missed selection for the Tokyo Olympic Games, claimed 40/50 targets in defeating Jones (39/50) with Tokyo Olympic team member, Penny Smith (29/40) placed third.

Tokyo Olympic team member Laura Coles continued her dominance in the women’s Skeet with her third successive Performance Series victory.

Coles was pressed by Victoria’s Brittany Melbourne in the final but emerged victorious hitting 51 from 60 targets ahead of Melbourne (48/60) with South Australia’s Bridgette McKinnon (33/50) earning the bronze medal.

NSW’s Joshua Bell scored back to back Performance Series victories when winning the men’s Skeet final.

Bell qualified third for the final but performed strongly in the medals decider to hit 53 from 60 targets to edge aside 2012 and 2016 Olympian Keith Ferguson (51/60) with Mat Costa (41/50) taking the bronze medal.

At the Wingfield Rifle Range in Adelaide, Queensland’s Dane Sampson captured his second gold medal at the Target Rifle South Australia Championships when he and Victoria’s Elise Collier triumphed in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Teams event.

With their victory, Sampson and Collier strengthened their claims to be named as the Australian entry in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Teams event at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

With the first team to reach 16 points declared the winner, Sampson and Collier secured their victory when winning the 12^th, 13^th and 14^th series to eventually defeat Jack and Tori Rossiter 16-12.

Katarina Kowplos and Michael Davis earned the bronze medal when downing Olivia Cartwright and Ben Holko 16-2.

Earlier Sampson and Collier were runners-up to NSW’s David Wright in the Open 50m Rifle Prone Final.

Wright performed strongly to score 247.8 points to beat Collier (246.1 points) and Sampson (225.6 points).

South Australia’s Katarina Kowplos registered a personal best score when winning the Open 10m Air Rifle final at the Target Rifle South Australia Championships at Wingfield Rifle Range in Adelaide today.

Kowplos, aged 19, captured the gold medal in an impressive display when scoring 251.0 points in defeating Queensland’s Dane Sampson (250.6 points) and Victoria’s Elise Collier (228.2 points).

Kowplos’ winning score today would have secured the silver medal at the 2018 World Championships – just 0.1 points behind South Korea’s Im Ha-na’s gold medal winning score.

Today’s victory saw Kowplos become the fifth Open 10m Air Rifle winner in this year’s Performance Series and sees her jump into third position with 107 points on the Open 10m Air Rifle Performance Leaderboard behind Sampson (114 points) and fellow South Australian Jack Rossiter (108 points).

Kowplos’ performance was a giant boost for the Tokyo Olympic Games in July where she will compete in one of two Australian teams in the Mixed 10 Air Rifle Teams event plus the women’s 50m Rifle 3 Position event.

Kowplos was delighted with her performance particularly after qualifying for the final in sixth position after the morning qualifying events.

Sampson led the final for the first 16 shots before Kowplos claimed a 0.5 point lead after 18 shots when shooting scores of 10.7 and a perfect 10.9.

Kowplos then held her nerve against the more experienced Sampson for the remaining six shots to clinch a narrow 0.4 point gold medal victory.

“That (the final) was pretty stressful. My heart rate was really high and was pumping,” said Kowplos.

“I just wanted the match to end,” she added with a smile.

“I just concentrated on my breathing and found a consistent rhythm,” she said.

Kowplos’ victory was a well timed boost after finishing seventh in the Open 50m Rifle 3 Positions event yesterday.

Kowplos said she is still adjusting to her new 3 Positions rifle after recently receiving replacement parts after detecting a faulty firing pin.

“I’ve now got less than 100 days to get use to my rifle,” she said.