What a result for British shooting
We’ve all been buzzing since the news dropped on Saturday. It’s not every day one of our own juniors goes out and absolutely schools the world’s elite, but that is exactly what Bethany Norton just did out in Tangier.
At just 19, she didn’t just turn up to her first senior ISSF World Cup; she completely took it over. We’re talking about a student from Newcastle Uni standing on the marks next to Olympic legends and World Champs. Can you imagine the nerves?
“I wasn’t expecting to even qualify for a final this weekend, so to make the final and then come away with gold is just amazing.”
The big guns
They were calling out all sorts of titles during the introductions – Olympian, Olympic medallist, world championship medallist – and then you’ve got Bethany in her first-ever final. Nobody can be in any doubt that she’s got absolute nerves of steel.
She finished with a 28, which is officially the highest score ever recorded by a junior in a senior final.
Interestingly, Bethany was actually guaranteed to set a record on Saturday regardless of the score because a new format was introduced last year – so no junior had reached the final of the competition before. The record was, in her words, “a pretty good added bonus.“
The skeet & wind challenge
For those of us more accustomed to different disciplines, it’s worth remembering the pressure of the setup here. In skeet, we have to start with the gun at our hip before the clay comes out. It’s a world away from trap, where shooters start with the gun already mounted. The transition from hip to shoulder has to be totally flawless in skeet.
Watching her handle the World Cup pressure is incredibly inspiring.
We’ve all been there at a ground, missing a bird and blaming our mount or the wind. Then you see Bethany dealing with the challenging Moroccan winds by simply focusing on the target and shooting on instinct. It makes our excuses look a bit thin, doesn’t it?
We’ll all be thinking twice before we moan about a bit of a breeze this weekend. Be more Bethany comes to mind.
Seeing a young British shooter take gold, gun at the hip and waiting for that flash of orange, is a massive boost for the whole community. It proves that the hours spent out in the cold and the rain actually lead somewhere. It’s about the “well done” from a mate when you dust a tricky crosser and the shared pride when one of us makes it to the top.
Huge congrats to Bethany. We’re all raising a coffee & a butty to her today.
