Rotorua teen shooter aims for Olympics (+video)

Competing for gold at a future Olympic Games is not a far-fetched goal in the mind of a Rotorua 13-year-old who has wowed her club with a near-perfect smallbore shooting score.

Western Heights High School Year 9 student Cheyanne McKenzie has only been doing smallbore shooting for the last year and a half.

But this week she shot a near-perfect score at the Rotorua Indoor Shooting Club, getting 100.07 on a target card. The highest a shooter can score is 100.10.

"It was the last thing I was expecting. I haven't been doing shooting for very long and it's really hard to achieve a 100, let alone a 100.07.

"There's so many little factors that can put your shot off from breathing to your position. My friends didn't realise how good it was until they tried it themselves and found out how hard it is."

Cheyanne said she was drawn to shooting because it was a sport she had to do by herself.

"It's all up to me. It's my passion that keeps me going, even when I'm hitting 80s and 90s I keep going."

She beamed at her target card as she spoke.

"I went and got it laminated straight away because if it ripped I would have been heart broken. My parents were stoked when they saw it, I thought my dad was going to have a heart attack."

She said going to the Olympics for shooting was something she would like to aim for.

"If I was in the Olympics and shot that, it would have been a gold... Scores like that don't happen often but if I can do it once, I can do it again," she said.

Her coach and the club's secretary Ivor Brettell said her score could potentially have won gold.

"It's different conditions in the Olympics, it's outdoors and the targets are further away but it very well could have been a gold-getting shot."

Mr Brettell believed Cheyanne had broken a club record for her age group as well.

"We don't really keep true records but I haven't seen anyone her age shoot that well... When she made the shot I gave her a pat on the back and said 'you just did 100' but she didn't believe me.

"I had to check the card to be sure but the minute she made the shot I thought, heck, that's 100 - it was quite remarkable."

He said he would back Cheyanne "all the way" if she decided to pursue shooting further.

"She isn't the first young person to show such potential at our club but if she wants to climb that ladder, I'll be there to help and guide her."