Another qualifying event in Shooting is up for grabs in all individual events at the European Games. The event takes place at the Sląsk multi-sports club in Wrocław, Poland.
All twelve individual events: 10m air rifle, 10m air pistol, 50m rifle 3 positions, Rapid Fire Pistol (M)/25m Pistol (W), Trap, and Skeet. The winner, or best athlete to not already qualify (or come from an NOC with the maximum two spots) will get a place.
On the men’s side, no Brits have qualified yet in the 10m Air Rifle. Michael Bargeron is the British rifle athlete, although he prefers the 50m event. No Brits have qualified in the 10m Air Pistol either. Kristian Callaghan, Sam Gowin and James Miller compete for GB. Callaghan was 30th at the World Championships, and while Gowin prefers the rapid fire pistol, Miller was 38th in last year’s World Championships. In the 50m Rifle 3 Positions, no Brits have qualified yet for Paris. Bargeron will hope to do better than his 47th at last years Worlds. In the Rapid Fire Pistol, no Brits have qualified yet, but Callaghan, Gowin and Miller will hope to go well. Gowin has a Commonwealth Games bronze in the event and was 35th in last year’s Worlds. In the Trap, GB already have a qualifier in Nathan Hales from the World Championships. Hales is not here this time, with Matthew Coward Holley and Aaron Heading in Poland. Coward Holley won Olympic bronze in Tokyo but was 91st in last year’s World Championships. Heading was 23rd in Tokyo but eighth in last year’s Worlds. Finally, in the Skeet no Brits have qualified yet but Freddie Killander and Ben Llewellin compete for GB. Killander was 47th in last years European Championships but Llewellin won bronze.
On the women’s side, Seonaid McIntosh has already qualified in the 10m air rifle and has returned, but can’t win another spot. She is joined by Katie Gleeson, who prefers the 50m distance. We’re yet to qualify an athlete in the 10m air pistol but Jess Liddon is in Poland. She was 48th in last year’s Worlds. In the 50m Rifle 3 Positions, no Brits have qualified but Gleeson and McIntosh hope for success. Gleeson came 39th in the Worlds last year. McIntosh was 14th in this event at Tokyo 2020. In the 25m Pistol, Liddon will be present and hope to do better than her 47th in last year’s Worlds. In the Trap, Lucy Hall has already qualified but she is joined by Georgina Roberts. Roberts was 17th in the Worlds last year. Finally, in the Skeet, Amber Rutter (formerly Amber Hill) has already qualified and she is joined by Emily Hibbs. Hibbs was fourteenth in last year’s Worlds.
For the mixed events (10m Air Rifle, 10m Air Pistol, Skeet), qualifying a man and a woman gets you a place. With McIntosh and Rutter qualifying, we are one Man away in the 10m Air Rifle and Skeet, but no progress has been made yet with the Air Pistol.
Shooting starts with the 10m Air Pistol on 22 June. The 10m Air Rifle is on 23 June, followed by the Skeet qualification on 24 and 25 June. On 25 June there will also be the start of Women’s 25m Pistol qualification, then the Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions, and finals of the Skeet. 26 June sees the completion of the Women’s 25m Pistol, and the Women’s 50m Rifle 3 positions. On 29 June is the start of the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol as well as Trap qualification, with all three events concluding on 30 June.
GB Games 