Dannevirke shooters excel in New Zealand 50m outdoor smallbore rifle shooting nationals

Caley McNair showing the technique which brought great results in the NZ smallbore nationals in Palmerston North.

Members of the Southern Hawke’s Bay Smallbore Rifle Association qualified for New Zealand teams at the New Zealand smallbore nationals.

Held in Palmerston North last month, the Manawatū wind proved to be a challenge most days during the New Zealand 50m outdoor shooting nationals but that didn’t stop the Southern Hawke’s Bay (SHB) contingent performing extremely well.

Six members from the local association competed, and all qualified for their relevant New Zealand teams. These teams shot in postal matches against their overseas competitors.

Toby Gyde with the New Zealand silver fern flag for making the NZ junior smallbore team for the first time.

Toby Gyde and Harry Lange, in their first year of outdoor shooting, made the New Zealand junior team along with Caley McNair. Caley was top for junior women and second junior overall.

Taresa Morris, who made the NZ Slazenger open team.

Robbie, Ruth, Caley McNair and Taresa Morris also made the NZ Slazenger open team.

Rob, Ruth and Taresa also were selected for the North Island team which convincingly beat the South Island.

The three women made the NZ Randall team, with Caley shooting the second highest score in the team followed very closely by her mother Ruth.

Ruth and Robbie McNair representing the North Island team in the NZ outdoor 50m nationals.

Ruth was also the fourth woman during the bationals which qualified her for the NZ women’s team of five against Australia.

The final event was the three-person association team competition. This is a very fun, but of course competitive event. Usually a quiet atmosphere is encouraged on the range to allow competitors to concentrate but for this match, more noise is better! Banging of drums, music, and small empty shells landing on shooters makes it very challenging. Despite this, the SHB team made up of Toby, Robbie and Ruth won the graded section.

It was a great week which finished off with the prizegiving dinner where Nicole McKee, MP and previous New Zealand shooting representative, spoke and presented some of the awards.