Lassen to shoot in Canada

Press, 18 April 1979, Page 34

Lassen to shoot in Canada

Bruce Lassen, a New Zealand representative in the clay target trap-shooting competition at the last two Commonwealth Games, will spend the next five months in Canada. The aim of the trip is to enable Lassen to get the build-up he requires if he is to make the New Zealand team for the Olympic Games in Moscow next year and the 1982 Commonwealth Games team in Brisbane. While in Edmonton, Lassen will compete in at least four important championshins, beginning on May 16 with the Canadian chamships. The other events are the Western Canada Games trials, the Western Canada international championships and the Alberta provincial championships. Lassen is well aware that

the competition will be more intense and far tougher than anything he will encounter here this year. Between the time he arrives and October, when he will return, Lassen expects to shoot about 2000 targets. This sort of competition

should be idea! for Lassen, He finished fifth-equal in the clay target section at the 1974 Commonwealth Games and had been hoping for an improvement on this last year at Edmonton. At the half-way stage of the event, he had a slender chance of a medal, having scored an 88 out of a possible 100 to be in seventh place. He recorded an 89 On the second 100 targets to finish in fifth place, finishing nine targets behind the winner, John Primrose of Canada, one of the top-class shooters Lassen is certain to come up against during his trip. Primrose has won the gold medal at the last two Commonwealth Games in the clay target trap competition, Lassen’s specialist event.

For Lassen, a 29-year-old commercial fisherman, the fishing season has ended, a

season Lassen described as moderately successful. Therefore he has no problem getting time off work. A certain amount of disillusionment set in fou Lassen when a New Zealand team was not sent to compete in the South Pacific championships in Melbourne over Easter. Last year, he finished second in his section when a team was sent This year, he said, New Zealand is the only eligible country which did not send a team.

There seems a good chance that the South Pacific contest could be held in Christchurch next year, according to Lassen. This would be a great boost for the South Island but a trench field would be a necessity and there are at present only two in New Zealand — both in the North Island.