Glyn youngsters bang on target in national shooting competition

The Glyn School in Ewell has earned quite a reputation for its sporting prowess in recent years, producing Swansea City footballer Jack Cork and national U18 gymnastics champion Jack Neill, and now it can add to that list national school pistol shooting champions, in both the team and individual competitions.

Having qualified for their first national finals via a regional competition last year, Glyn’s team of Year 12 students James Miller, Emma O’Neill and Kieron Gall went up against some of the leading pentathlon schools in Great Britain, including sports specialist school Millfield – and came out on top.
All three pupils took part in the team competition, with Emma and Kieran both recording personal best scores in the 200-shot competition, before James’s score of 183/200 won him the individual final, and saw Glyn crowned national champions, 20 points clear of the team in second place.
After celebrating that triumph, it was back to business for the individual finals, which saw James come out on top again, winning with a record score of 188.1 to be crowned British schools senior champion 2017.
Since then, James, aged 16, has competed against some of the world’s top young shooting talent, up to the age of 20, at theIntershoot World Shooting competition in Holland.
He ended up coming third in the 10m pistol event, beaten only by the Scottish and German number ones, a result which saw him promoted to second in the Great Britain U21 rankings.
“This is an amazing achievement for all three of them and for the whole school,” said Glyn’s extra curricular co-ordinator Tracy Pearson.
“Three months ago no-one would even have believed they could reach the national finals, so to go on and win it – against some incredibly experienced and tough competition – is quite remarkable, especially as Emma and Kieran are rifle specialists, rather than pistol.”
The shooting team’s success is particularly well timed as Glyn, a founder member of the GLF Schools multi-academy trust, is celebrating its 90th birthday with a year-long series of commemorative events.
“We couldn’t be more proud of what they’ve achieved, both individually and for the school. I really hope they inspire other pupils – they’ve really put Glyn on the map, so I hope this could be the start of something special for the school.”