Eltham Small Bore Rifle Club shooter wins awards

In his first season of shooting, Blayke has received a number of trophies. Photo/ Supplied

In his first year of small-bore rifle shooting, Blayke (13) has received a number of awards.

Blayke started shooting at the Eltham Smallbore Rifle Club in 2021.

"As a family, we decided that this would be a great sport to do with the entire family and compete against each other as small-bore rifle shooting doesn't have different competitions for males or females - everyone competes against everyone in their grade."

He says a junior development night helped him with coaching and learning the rules and position.

"It was always heaps of fun and the coaches encourage us heaps. I just ended up clicking with the sport and achieving some great results early.

"I shot a card score of 99.6 after just shooting for three months. The highest score you can ever get is 100.10, which is very rare."

Individually, Blayke won third in the National Indoor Championships D grade; first in the D grade, second in C grade in the Taranaki Open; third D grade in the Hāwera Open; and fourth in D grade in the Whanganui Open.

"In the Taranaki Association, I received first in the D grade closed champs, third in the Postals D grade and the Marksman Badge D grade for the top shooter in D grade in all of Taranaki."

For the Eltham Small Bore Rifle Club, Blayke received first D grade champion, Napflin Season Handicap trophy winner for the junior season, handicap trophy winner, and certificate of participation for excellence in first year of shooting.

He also won a number of team awards.

"My team placed fifth out of 21 teams for the Target Shooting NZ National Secondary Schools Postal shoot rep Stratford High School. I also placed in the top-10 male shooters."

For the National District Champs representative Taranaki Provincial Team, Blayke's team placed second in the B final. Blayke was one of the top three junior shooters on several occasions through the NDC season as well.

For the Teams of Five B-grade team shoot representing Taranaki, Blayke's team placed third.

He says as well as winning a range of trophies, a highlight for him was finding a sport he loves.

"The top goal for me is to qualify for the Commonwealth Games in a few years' time."