FIVE of Orange’s finest pistol shooters have taken on Australia’s best and shone, confirming the Orange and District Pistol Club’s place as one of the nation’s premier clubs.
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Dean Brus, Davey Oates, Max Wicks, Lara Cowling and Helen Lord represented New South Wales at the 54th ISSF and Pistol Australia National Championships in Adelaide last month.
Oates picked up a gold and a bronze in the WA1500 revolver and in the service pistol events respectively.
Brus took out two silvers, in the service pistol 25 yard and behind Oates in the WA1500 revolver, while also taking out the service pistol three-match aggregate winner’s trophy.
Both Wicks and Cowling shot in a number of hotly contested events.
Wicks’ best result was fourth in the service pistol 25 yard with Cowling’s 10th in the 25 metre pistol women.
While Lord made the final of the 10m air pistol women, finishing fifth.
And they were just individual results.
In the teams NSW dominated, taking out the service pistol teams, service pistol unrestricted teams, WA1500 teams, WA1500 revolver teams and the Phillip Adams OAM State Teams trophy.
“They’re good results for the (ODPC),” said Brus, who also doubles as the president of the ODPC.
“For us to have five state representatives is pretty special and then to have two Australian representatives in Davey Oates and myself is fantastic.”
The national championships in Adelaide was the final selection trial before the WA1500 World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden in August.
Both Oates and Brus have been in contention to earn selection in the national side for some time, however, they weren’t 100 per cent sure if they’d qualified until the numbers ticked over in Adelaide.
“It’s nice to go down there and get the confirmation,” he said.
“To have three shooters representing Australia and two of them from Orange is great.”
The third member of the Aussie side to go to Stockholm is Tamworth’s Don Pollard.
The trio’s selection in the green and gold will see Oates, Brus and Pollard team up for the second year running.
Brus was confident of a strong performance overseas.
“I’ve got a couple of these (championships) under my belt now. I think I’ve learnt enough and now have enough experience to be competitive,” he said.
“We’ve won copper (medals) every time but there is still some unfinished business. It’s time to win some individual events.”
The world championships take place in Stockholm, Sweden from August 11-14.
