Lining up a shot at the Coronation Target Shooting Club at the weekend is Charlotte McKenzie. Photo Heather MackenzieIt may have been early season, but the scoring didn’t reflect it when entrants lined up for a shot at the Target Shooting Mid Canterbury Open Championship title at the weekend.

It was the opening weekend on the South Island calendar for open championships, and Target Shooting Mid Canterbury’s was the first to go on the line on Friday night and Saturday, with competitors from as far away as Nelson and Invercargill converging on the Coronation Target Shooting Club range for the event.

The master grade competition was lit up with five 200s scored, and 13 100s across the entire field, with a young Ashburton shooter coming out on top. Shania Harrison-Lee from the Phoenix Target Shooting Club, in her first master grade outing, produced two 200s and won with a score of 399.33.

In second was Rachel McLaren from the Wood Club in Nelson who also got a 200 on her way to 398.25 while Coronation’s Steve McArthur was third on 396.26, with two 200s.

A grade was won by Graham Hunter (Collegiate Club, Invercargill) on 392.20 at his second home of Coronation, while B grade was won by Paul Holland (Richmond Club, Nelson) with 393.19 from Coronation’s own Colin Taylor with 388.14. Coronation’s Bill Rankin was third with 385.12.

C grade was won by Holly Gibbons (Wakefield, Nelson) with 282.9, with Phoenix’s Andrew McKenzie second with 278.6 and Brendan Cleave (Gore) third on 277.6. D grade was won by Coronation’s Charlotte McKenzie with an excellent score of 288.11.

After all grades were shot the top 10 qualifiers came together for a competition, with Harrison-Lee also taking out the M, A and B grade top 10 with 200.14, while the C and D top 10 was won by Gibbons with 193.04.

On Sunday attention turned to the inaugural Phoenix Target Shooting Club Open Championships, and once again it was a mighty battle in the master grade, with McArthur coming out on top in that one with a score of 299.90, beating out Harrison-Lee who finished with a score of 297.20.

In A grade Katherine Butt (Richmond Club, Nelson) took a well-deserved win with with a total of 296.20, narrowly beating Phoenix president TJ Stewart who finished with 100.7 for 296.14, with Tony Black from the Balclutha Club in third with 296.14.

Holland took out the B grade again with a sound 294.13, again beating out Taylor (293.18), with Peter Boerlage (West Eyreton) third with 291.14.

C grade was won by Samantha Whitcombe (Paparua, Christchurch) with 286.10 and D grade was won again by Coronation’s Charlotte McKenzie, with the first-time entrant scoring 293.07.

Another promising local youngster, Maddison Tourle from Phoenix, also had great day and finished with a great result of 258.05.

The open top 10 was taken out by Coronation’s Sandy Bennett with 199.11 and the B, C, D top 10 was taken by Faron Holland (Richmond) with 195.10.

The overall top shot for the entire weekend was Harrison-Lee (Phoenix) who, at only 16 was an exciting prospect in the sport, while the top B, C, D shooter for the weekend was Paul Holland from Nelson, while 13-year-old Coronation shooter Charlotte McKenzie was the runner-up, a big honour which cemented her as one to watch.

Target Shooting Mid Canterbury president Nina McKenzie said the weekend was a huge success and it was great to see the team work among members of the Mid Canterbury target shooting family to make sure both events ran smoothly.

She said it was great that so many people came from so far away to take part.

Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 24 April 2019