The flood and weather warnings were unfortunately accurate, which meant that no shooting could take place on Thursday. The last shoot of the Australian Championships was therefore cancelled and the standings at the end of day 3 are the final placings. This gave the GB team a chance to relax and catch up on their admin whilst watching the rain out of the window.
The only event of the day was prizing giving for the individual competitions. Members of GB Team were well represented in the final standings. In overall first place, following his excellent 225.28v (ex 225.45v) yesterday was John Lindsay III. He dropped only 7 points over the three days of competition, out of a total of 675. A very impressive feat on an unfamiliar range.
Hot on his heels, just one point adrift, was Ashley Abrahams. He continued his excellent form from the Shipwreck Coast Challenge, picking numerous range and aggregate wins throughout the three days and taking second overall.
Julian Peck continued the GB Team’s good form by picking up the Day 2 Aggregate win and third place in the Championship, just one more point behind Ashley. A new prize this year was for top lady, which went to Zoe Woodroffe in seventh place overall.
As well as wins for Team GB, there were also two records sets in this competition. In the history of Australian Match Rifle, there has only ever been one 225 ex 225 on a day’s shooting until now. Fergus Flanagan was the second person to achieve this feat and break the record by 6 V-bulls with a 225.27v (ex 225.45v). His name will go down in the history books. Unfortunately, our overall winner, John Lindsay III, took the record from him by one V-bull only a few hours later in the day. Fergus does however go home with some silverware, taking the top prize at 1100 yards on day 3.
No doubt, team captain Nick Tremlett is very happy with his team’s performance of the last three days. With the team matches starting tomorrow, he has a difficult decision ahead of him to select his eight firers for the Woomera Match on Saturday.
Our thanks to the Stawell Rifle Club and the National Rifle Association of Australia for organising a highly successful event.