Despite narrowly losing out on an individual podium place due to a bib number technicality, Grampian clay pigeon shooter Allan Ritchie performed astonishingly well alongside team mates Paul Bailey and Mathew Goodwin to help Team GB take home team gold at this year’s World Shooting Para Sport Para Trap World Championships.
The inaugural event, held in Lonato in Italy, was the last of Allan’s trio of world class events and followed the British Championships in Wales and the World Cup in France…both of which took place in the preceding fortnight.
Allan admits that his initial qualification round started shakily, but he hit an astonishing 25/25 in the second round on the finals layout – the first 25 to be shot in the inaugural Para World Championships. This left him on the highest seated score on Day 1, which gained him the Pieter Bortolin Trophy for his category.
After some challenging light conditions which proved detrimental to his performance, Allan made it through to the final on Day 2 of the competition. Unfortunately, Allan dropped to 6th place in the initial rounds of the finals, but pulled himself back up to joint second place! However, it wasn’t meant to be, and with Allan sitting in joint 3rd place with a tie at the end of the tiebreak round, he was pushed out of a podium spot based on bib number.
Allan is now on the return leg of his journey back to Grampian – a cool 1,400 miles by car!
Well done to Allan on his incredible back-to-back performances over the last three weeks, which has seen him return home with the following medal haul:
- Gold – British Shotgun Para Champion 2018
- Silver – Individual WSPS World Cup, Châteauroux
- Gold – Team GB, WSPS World Cup, Châteauroux
- Pieter Bortolin trophy – Day one leader at WSPS World Championships, Lonato
- Gold – Team GB, WSPS World Championships, Lonato
To see Allan in action, skip to 52 minutes at https://www.paralympic.org/shooting. It sure is impressive stuff!
Photo credit: Allan Ritchie