This two-day event was staged in Hamilton with over 320 shooters from all areas of New Zealand competing.

St Paul’s assembled a small team of four shooters this year. The team comprised of two Year 9 novice competitors, one Year 10 and one Year 11 student. We were under no illusions as to the task that confronted us, so we set some realistic goals and looked to achieve personal bests for the season.

Day one proved to be a little overwhelming, and the pressure of competing at this level was reflected in some of our scores. In the single rise event, the best scores of the day went to Alex Purdie and Kane Stirling with 18/20. Alex was our leading scorer in the points event with 50/60, and in the single barrel, Alex and James McLanachan both scored 8/10.

Day two got off to a great start. In the single rise event, James scored the “possible” 25/25 and immediately advanced to the medal rounds in the afternoon. Unfortunately, Alex dropped a target but scored a very commendable 24/25. Hopefully, these results would create a positive impact and continue to lift the scores from the day before. The points event was next and our best scores were from Alex with 65/75 and James 63/75. A little lower than what we had hoped for.

The last event was the single barrel. Alex scored a fantastic 15/15 “possible” and he automatically advanced through to the medal rounds. Due to the difficulty of this discipline, only ten shooters qualified for this shoot off. In the medal round shoot off for single rise, James was placed in the top 40. A very pleasing result and one he can be proud of.

Alex was up next in his medal shoot off in the single barrel event. He finally placed 8th, a remarkable effort for a Year 10 student who had not long returned from Tihoi.

Overall we are very proud of our efforts and it has laid a very solid platform for the years to come. Thank you to Mr Ian Campbell for his support of the team.