Glyn students on target for double success

Sharp-shooting students at Glyn School have successfully defended their title and were awarded the title of National Schools’ Pistol Champions for the second year running.

More than 500 competitors from 280 different schools across the country attended the Stoke Mandeville Stadium for the event and Glyn’s team was victorious.

Emma O’Neil, Kieran Gall and James Miller represented the school after qualifying first in the South England Regional Tournament. They lined-up against some of the top pentathlete and shooting schools in Great Britain - including Millfield, Durham and the Lockerbie Academy.

The team competition needed all three members to score well, as they all counted. Emma shot a personal best 175 out of 200; Kieran also shot a personal best of 154 and James shot 181 to qualify in first place for the Individual Championship Final.

With a team performance of 510, Glyn school was 60 points clear of the nearest competition and was awarded the Gold team medal and was crowned as National Team Champions.

But there was little time to celebrate as both Emma and James had to steel themselves for the individual finals and the top pistol shooters in the country went head-to-head. Emma took eighth spot, impressive as she is a rifle specialist, and James was defending last year’s title. He set a new record score of 229.4 and took the top spot to be crowned British School Senior Champion.

Emma shoots in the in the GB Junior Rifle Squad and Kieran is number one in the country’s under-21 GB pistol team and in the under-21 Target, Sprint, Run and Shoot.

James will be representing the UK later this month in the European Pistol Championships in Hungary. The competition is also an Olympic qualifying event. Both he and James will represent Great Britain in the World Junior Championships being held in Germany in June.