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Congratulations to Shooting great Libby Kosmala who has been inducted into the SA Sport Hall of Fame after winning 13 medals at 12 Paralympic Games.

Libby Kosmala was a reluctant participant the first time she was handed a rifle at a shooting range.

The SA Paralympic great was secretary of the Wheelchair Sports Association of SA in 1973, when she and president Kevin Bawden were invited to Dry Creek to try the sport.

But Kosmala, a swimmer at the time, was far from excited by the prospect, just three years out from winning the first of her nine shooting gold medals.

“I said to Kevin, ‘I know I’m secretary, but I don’t really want to start shooting, I’m not interested at all’,” Kosmala, now 77, recalled.

“He said ‘well we better go and have a look just to see what it’s all about’.

“So they gave me a rifle, they loaded it and gave me a target 20m away.

“I said ‘where’s the trigger and how do I hold the rifle?’

“But my first shot went straight through the middle of the target.

“When you keep winning with something, I suppose you stay with it.”

The unlikely introduction began a love affair with shooting, as Kosmala claimed glory at the 1976 Toronto Games and shone at another 10 Paralympics.

Her glittering career would be recognised when she was inducted into the SA Sport Hall of Fame at Adelaide Oval on November 22.

“It’s a very great honour,” said wheelchair-bound Kosmala, who also competed in archery, fencing and athletics on the international stage.

“It’s quite unbelievable and I was a bit stunned initially.

“The Paralympic movement has changed a lot in the 50 years that I’ve been involved.

“I’m really thrilled and delighted to represent it in the hall of fame.”

Kosmala’s Paralympic journey began in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1972, when she grabbed bronze swimming the backstroke leg of the 3 x 50m medley relay.

But she attended her first Games four years earlier, as secretary for the Australian team in Tel Aviv after missing selection.

“There were four South Australians … and they were all my great friends,” Kosmala, of Klemzig, said.

“When I wasn’t chosen to swim, they said ‘why don’t you pay your own way and come with us Libby’, so that’s what I did.

“I only had to do very little really, so I had lots of spare time to watch all our Australians competing and it was fantastic.

“After that I thought ‘next time, I’ll be in that team competing’.”

Kosmala remembered small crowds and basic facilities in Israel, including an outdoor basketball court and temporary accommodation blocks for the 750 athletes.

It was in stark contrast to her last Paralympic appearance as the oldest competitor at Rio 2016, when she was among 4342 participants from 159 nations.

But the grandmother of three had no plans to push for Tokyo selection next year, instead focusing her efforts on coaching the next generation of talents at Wingfield Rifle Club.

“I’ve done my dash,” said Kosmala, who still shoots in occasional local competitions.

“Now I want to get the young ones up to a level so they can compete for Australia.

“That’s my ambition and my aim.”

The original article can be read here

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

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

Canberra trap shooter Scottie Brydon set a new world record in qualifying but was unable to grab a medal in the PT1 Mixed Trap Seated final on day two of the World Para Shooting Championships at the Sydney International Shooting Centre.

Brydon was in hot form in the qualifying rounds scoring 113 points to eclipse the previous seven-year world record of 111 points.

The gold medal was won by Italy’s Oreste Lai who defeated Finland’s Juha Myllymaki in a shoot-off, with Great Britain’s Allan Ritchie capturing the bronze medal.

Australian Shooting Para Shooting National Team Manager, Kurt Olsen, said Brydon should be proud of his world record despite being placed sixth in the final.

“He shot really well during qualifying but was unable to carry that form into the final,” said Olsen.

“He can chalk it down experience for the future. He will digest the day, learn, and move forward. But at the end of the day he shot a personal best and a world record, so he should be very proud of that,” added Olsen.

Melbourne’s Matthew Tingate also managed a personal best performance when finishing fifth in the PT3 Mixed Trap Standing final.

Italy’s Francesco Nespeca won the gold medal in comfortable fashion, but the silver and bronze medals were tightly contested.

Qualifying in third position, Tingate remained in medal contention, but slipped behind when shooting one of five targets in the third last rotation.
It proved to be an all-Italian podium with Nespeca’s team-mates Mirko Cafaggi and Emilio Poli winning the silver and bronze medals.

Olsen said Tingate was pleased with his performance. “It was his second-ever final and he is really developing fast. He set a PB in qualifying and continues to grow,” said Olsen.

Australia’s two other shooters on day 2, WA’s Duncan Burnett (P2 Mixed Trap) and Brisbane’s Mark Farrow (PT3 Mixed Trap) did not reach the finals.

The Sydney 2019 World Shooting Para Sport Championships run from 12-19 October. More information is available on the event website. World Shooting Para Sport Facebook and Twitter pages.

Greg Campbell – PRISM Strategics Communications