Picture Above: Phoebe McKenzie - Bronze in National U21 Womens Championship

Last week marked the Target Shooting New Zealand Outdoor National Championships, hosted in Palmerston North. This event sees the best of NZ’s marksmen gather to compete for national titles and selection to national teams. The event takes a week to complete, which involves a series of matches across each day, culminating in the National Championship, a North Island v South Island, and ultimately New Zealand team matches. It’s a very demanding week for competitors. (As the matches are compulsorily squadded by the hosts, you can end up shoulder to shoulder with anyone – Phoebe shot beside other U21’s but also Olympian and Commonwealth competitors too, which is a fantastic experience).

Outdoor (which is the international discipline of our sport) gives competitors 85 minutes across the match: 10 minutes of preparation time, 15 minutes of sighting and preparation, and 60 minutes of match firing time. This means athletes must have match endurance to maintain good shot selection & technique, as well as maintaining intense focus throughout. The results are marked electronically, giving both a whole numerical score (out of a total of 600) and an electronic graduated score.

Phoebe McKenzie was the sole competitor from Ashburton College (ex-Ashburton College student Shania Harrison-Lee was present but Charlotte McKenzie was not present due to University commitments). It was her first time competing on the range in Palmerston North, which offered quite different conditions from her home range at McLeans Island in Christchurch. The days were hot & muggy, which produced difficult mirage for the competitors to grapple with, as well as intense and frequently changing light conditions, and an ever present, fickle wind.

Across the week, Phoebe shot consistently well. She worked hard to adapt to the conditions, and showed excellent discipline in her shot selection. This resulted in her achieving two PBs through her matches, including topping 600 (electronic), which is a fantastic achievement.

National Championship day dawned hot and humid. In spite of the inclement conditions, Phoebe set well to her work, opening with a series of excellent shots to settle her nerves and then producing two great strings (10 shot sequences) within the middle of the match to assist in a very good final result. With results across the board down for the U21’s on the day, due to the conditions, Phoebe did really well to claim the bronze medal in the Women’s U21 National Championship, giving away both age and experience to fellow competitors.

As a result of these great results, Phoebe was selected to the South Island Open Team, for the annual match against the North Island (which the North Island won).

Her series of match results saw her subsequently selected to the New Zealand U21 (Junior) Team for a match against the Great Britain U21 team, and also to the New Zealand U21 Women’s Team for a match against the Great Britain U21 Women’s Team.

International day brought new conditions, with very changeable wind and intense lighting changes. The match conditions really put the competitors to work, and required excellent technique to achieve good results. Once zeroed to her chosen condition, Phoebe got stronger as the match went and finished with a very strong final third, for a really good result. As the match is a postal, the New Zealand teams are currently waiting on results from Great Britain to confirm who has won the test.

Next for Phoebe will be moving to Indoor across the winter, which includes open, graded and school matches. She will look to nominate for international consideration and designated matches for the start of the Oceania Championship selection cycle from October-March 2025.