Report from South Korea
Report from South Korea
Hi all,
Here's a bit of an update on our trip so far. The rifle members of the NZ World Champs team arrived in Changwon, South Korea last Thursday safe and sound with all gear intact which was a great start. After a day settling in and adjusting to a 15 degree increase in daytime temps we headed to the Chanwon International Shooting Centre for a look see, collect our accreditation and familiarise ourselves with the range layout etc. It's fair to say she is a big setup having recently been totally renovated and upgraded. ..oh to have a facility even half this good in NZ.
Our team then set about going through equipment check and getting some un-official training in, although space is allocated it’s a case of grabbing any space available as soon as it appears...
The weather prior to the first match was generally in the high 20's, calm, overcast and very humid with heavy rain showers, thunderstorms and the odd sunny spell... so great training conditions and everyone was settling into range life very well.
Nights have been spent sampling the local Korean food which has been fun. The locals are super friendly, very inviting and happy to help us wherever possible. Between us we work our way thru the language issues with more than a few laughs on both sides... it’s fair to say they love kiwis! I digress...... back to the shooting...
The day of the men's and woman's elimination match dawned muggy and wet with the forecast to clear and hit 30+ degrees and it didn't disappoint. For the first time since we arrived we got bright sunshine and really hot humid conditions and therefore range condition quite different to those we'd trained in. Martin Hunt was 1st to shoot and struggled with the sighting conditions and was eliminated with a match score of 606. To give you an idea the top score in his round was 626 and there were 60 odd guys in his round with approx half progressing through.
Next up was Helen Freiman and Denva Wren, again conditions were bright and humid with a little flicky wind for spice. Conditions across the range varied and a whopping score of 626 was the top score with Denva hitting 608 and Helen fighting thru just making the cut with a 612.4.... so a good result for the day. Janet Hunt shot in the last squad of the day and was also eliminated.... Wednesday dawned and onto the final and with 60 odd in Helen's squad and similar conditions to Tuesday it was going to be a tough day. The conditions certainly made everyone work hard and the shifty wind caused 9's to pop up all over the range and the top guns weren't immune. Helen fought hard and posted 611 so not the result she wanted, buts that's shooting!
I must make mention of our Aussie mate Dane who shot a fantastic 626 today in the men’s final and just missed a medal by less than a point.
300 Metre is next up and we went to the range today for a shakedown but there were some target issues so we'll post more for you all in the next few days.
Hope everyone’s keeping warm at home.
Cheers Jon and Helen