Q. How did you get into clay shooting?
Dad did it in the late 1980s and I took it on in high school [John McGlashan College in Dunedin] and I haven’t done much since, except for Young Farmers for the last couple of years.
Q. How old were you when you fired a shotgun for the first time?
About 11 or 12.
Q. What spurred you to get back into the sport?
The Young Farmers put on an Otago-Southland regional competition and I thought it might be worth going to that and having a go last year. I came first equal last year but then went to the national competition and didn’t do that well. I went to the regionals this year and got a placing and went not too badly at the nationals this year.
Q. How many people were you competing against?
Thirteen. There are two people entered from each of the seven Young Farmers regions.
Q. How did your day unfold at nationals?
We had a 10-target eye-opener and I dropped one in that but that wasn’t scored. Then we had a 25-target single rise, which was one point for a hit and zero for a miss and I got 23 out of 25 there. Then we had two rounds of point score, where it is three points for a first barrel, two points for a second and zero for a miss. Each of those rounds is scored out of 75. I got 74 points in the first round and 68 points in the second round. I fell off towards the end a bit because I didn’t realise there was a second round of point score so I thought I was on for a really good score and then someone told me I had to go back out and shoot more.
Q. Are you a duck-shooter?
Not really — I’m not that good at shooting ducks.
Q. Where to next for your clay target shooting career?
Probably just more of the same. I’ll keep doing the Young Farmers stuff for the social side of it.
Q. Will you try to defend your title at the nationals in Hamilton next year?
If I get the chance but we will see how it goes.
