Youth > Clay Target Shooting

FISH & GAME NZ SECONDARY SCHOOLS CLAY TARGET SHOOTING COMPETITIONS

The Fish & Game NZ Secondary School Clay Target Shooting Competition, which began as the Winchester Inter-school Postal Shoot about 17 years ago, has quadrupled in popularity in the last few years. Around 380 school students from schools across the country now compete each year.

The event is tightly structured with two competitions annually - a North and South Island event as well as the Nationals alternating at each of these.

Some of our clay target shooting competitors, particularly girls win gold medals at Commonwealth and Olympics Games, and this is the Clay Target Shooting competition they first succeed at.

For many of these youngsters this is their first competitive event, while others are seasoned competitors who shoot both for their school and their local club.

It is also a life-changing sport for many, with both parents and teachers saying they are astounded at the changes in attitude and confidence the sport can create.

The students compete in single sex and mixed team events as well as individually across three disciplines: Skeet, Down the Line (DTL) which has a Single Rise, Points Score and Single Barrel event, and with the winner of the High Gun being the shooter with the highest score for these events over the day.

This year, 2008, will be the 8th year the national championship has been sponsored by Fish and Game New Zealand.
 
Fish & Game NZ sponsors the event because it teaches responsible firearms use and brings together young shooters from schools throughout the country.

We also believe that the benefits from our sponsorship are increased firearms knowledge and safety, understanding of the environmental advocacy role Fish & Game NZ play, and acceptance of game bird hunting as a sustainable sport.

In 2006, in recognition of the astounding growth of the event - almost triple in popularity in four years – the NZ Ammunition Company began donating a shotgun to the winner of the highest overall points score.

The enormous growth in the Secondary School Clays is beginning to have a flow on effect, and with SPARC’s assistance school coaching programmes are now being setu up around the country along with the opportunity to work with different international coaches worldwide.

A roll call of our clay target shooting international success includes: Natalie Curtis who won the Women’s World Open Individual Title in the 2004 DTL Championships; Anya van de Wetering and Jan Manson who, with Curtis, came second in the Women’s Open World team event; and Brendon Malcolm, Daniel Mudgway and Toby Nichole who came second in the World Junior Team event. 

While in the McIntosh International Postal Shoot (competed for between Commonwealth Countries annually) we had three winning teams: Mathew Castles, Duncan Wight, Myles Browne-Cole and Carl Milligan who won the Junior Team 2004; Noema Albert, who joined van de Wetering and Curtis, in winning the Women’s Open Team 2005, and Sam Gregory, David Bowen, Kane Bennett and Ben Willcox who, along with Mudgway, won the Junior Team 2005.