SSAA NSW

Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (NSW) Inc. 8 National Junior Challenge July 11-13, 2014 SSAA Victoria My family and I had the pleasure of attending the 2014 National Junior Challenge held over the weekend of 11 to 13 July at the SSAA VIC Springvale Range and SSAA VIC Eagle Park Range. We arrived at the Springvale Range Friday morning and were greeted at the door and given the rundown of where things were and who everyone was, firearms checked in, entries confirmed and Brent started practice, (time for a bacon and egg roll washed down with a flat white coffee, ah perfect). The 3P competition started and the competition was tough with everyone putting in best efforts but always on hand were the volunteers to help where needed and always the junior shooters spurring each other on and reassuring when they didn't get what they were trying to get. This has always been one of the really positive things about this particular competition, the marksmanship is of the highest standards and is only perhaps surpassed by the sportsmanship that was on display for the whole weekend. Saturday's events were held at Eagle Park Range for the Metallic Silhouette, and although tough conditions with a real solid blast of winter down the range, again the shooting was of a very high standard and ultimately a shoot off for 3rd place in the under 18's. Sunday was back to Springvale for the Field Rifle competition and again best efforts on show by all shooters but ultimately congratulations to James Freeman in the under 15's and Emerson Shiel in the under 18's for their overall efforts, but Alex Payne take a bow for his concentration in the 10m air rifle and subsequent record . . . wow. To anyone who has never attended an event like this, do yourself a favour and like Nike say, just do it. The friendly nature of all who were involved makes you feel right at home and if there are any questions that need answering, just ask. Over the whole 3 days you are made to feel welcome and involved and to Springvale, Eagle Park and ACT helpers your organisational skills are unsurpassed and the catering first class. NSW representative Brent Ryall had this to say "The atmosphere during the whole time was great especially on the roast dinner night/quiz night. Everyone was really friendly and willing to help. It was a good way to challenge myself and go further with my sport. Overall it was a great event and I would encourage more NSW kids to go". To everyone who was involved I can only paraphrase Jack Gibson "done good, played hard, come first". Well done to all and hopefully we will see some more NSW competitors there to compete and have fun next year. Gavin Ryall

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