Six Gulf Harbour School students participated in the recent pistol shooting championships for NZ Schools: Harvey Watts, Alex Wood, Sophie Doocey, Pilippa Gouws, and Amy Watson. It is a schools competition run by Pistol NZ that takes place towards the end of September every year. It is the national championships for NZ schools and for the first time primary/intermediate students also participated in what was until now a competition for secondary school students only. The Gulf Harbour students competed in the intermediate category with some of them achieving at a high level, taking into account that they only started with the sport earlier this year. All six students train on a weekly basis under the guidance of Greg Yelavich. Greg is a world class athlete (competed at Two Olympic Games and won 14 Commonwealth medals) and is currently coaching the NZ Pistol Team and athletes participating at Commonwealth and Olympic level. It is a privilege for these young students to have Greg coaching on a weekly basis at our club. He is currently preparing Joe Baily, a Whangaparaoa College student for participation at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in 2013 and is already looking for talent for the Youth Olympic Games in 2014. The shooting club works closely with Sport Gulf Harbour and we plan to soon have a few athletes (boys and girls) competing under the Sport Gulf Harbour banner. Parents (mum or dad) are encouraged to train and shoot together with their children. Training sessions are at the Wentworth College gym on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The club have an indoor electronic shooting range and state of the art Morini pistols for the use of beginners. Athletes use an air pistol and compete in the ISSF 10m air pistol event – which means they aim at a ‘standard size’ target at a distance of 10 meters.
Sophie Doocey of the Gulf Harbour School Pistol Shooting Team training at Wentworth College Sports Centre under the guidance of NZ Olympian and National Team coach, Greg Yelavich.
