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ISSF World Tour Target Sprint successfully conducted in Bristol

ISSF World Tour Target Sprint - British Open · Bristol, GBR

The conclusive stage of the tour — that previously stopped in Suhl (GER) — took place from October 5th to October 7th in the South West England city.

Target Sprint is a heart racing, exhilarating sport, which combines running and target shooting, athleticism with skill and accuracy, where the first past the post wins. Despite only being introduced to the Great Britain sporting calendar two years ago, the exciting sport of Target Sprint has gone from strength-to-strength, to the point where the International Shooting Sport Federation brought a leg of its World Tour to Bristol (GBR) this year.

 

After the competition, British Shooting Event and Commercial Coordinator Gorgs Geikie said: “I’m astounded by the speed at which Target Sprint has developed in Great Britain. There is a real demand for the sport. This growth is thanks largely to a fantastic team of volunteers who are rolling out events, coaching and engagement opportunities in the UK. As well as the tremendous support of the team at Air Arms.”

 

“Having the first ISSF Target Sprint event in Great Britain was really exciting, as we are an organisation striving towards becoming a world-leading shooting nation.”

 

The ISSF World Tour Target Sprint events took place on the Saturday — featuring some of the world’s top competitors from Germany and Great Britain – and it didn’t disappoint in terms of nail-biting drama, tension, and of course huge talent.

 

Great Britain’s Morten Van Der Schee won the men’s junior category with a time of 5 minutes and 7 seconds, with compatriots Arno Turner and Isaac Steel winning silver and bronze respectively. Arno also represented the British team at senior men’s level in which he won gold with a time of 5 minutes and 17 seconds. Germany’s Thomas Haslinger won silver and Great Britain’s Oliver Vass won bronze.

 

In junior women, Germany took gold and silver thanks to fantastic performances from Madlen Guggenmos and Edith Buschsieweke, with Great Britain’s Poppy Clark winning bronze. It was Germany’s Jana Landwehr who won gold in senior women with a time of 5 minutes and 38 seconds. Katie Robbins of Great Britain won silver and Poppy Clark won bronze.

 

Germany also came out on top in the team events, winning gold in the Team Men, Team Women and Mixed Team events, with GB winning silver and bronze in the men’s and women’s events.

 

The Mixed Team race probably brought the most drama from the day, with Great Britain’s Morten Van Der Schee and Poppy Clark sitting in 4th spot right up until the last hand over, in which Van Der Schee shot and ran incredibly to secure silver position.

 

Speaking after securing a whole host of medals during the event, Poppy said: “It’s been amazing. My shooting finally came together. All year we’ve been working on it and today it just clicked.”

 

“The atmosphere here has been amazing. It’s such a good spectator sport and I just love that you can go into a shoot last and come out first, or the vice versa.”

 

Morten said: “I came in to the final shoot fourth and just nailed my shooting and ran the final lap in second position. It’s amazing when you know you’re in a medal position and you have to fight to hold onto it.”

 

“Knowing that I had one of the German athletes behind me meant I had to focus, drive my arms and just go for it in the final straight. I was just thinking, ‘there’s no way I’m letting him pass me’, and it worked!”

 

For the complete results of the competition click here.

British Shooting Press Release

 

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