Shooter awaits top results

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 457, 13 October 1992, Page 12

Shooter awaits top results

Currently waiting for the results of the New Zealand Shooting Championships is Raetihi's Donna McGrath, who has had a very successful two years in the sport. Although Donna only started competing just this year, she has risen from C to B grade with her start in an InterBusiness match. Finding she could shoot as well with a sling-mounted rifle as with a blockmounted one she went on to compete in and win the Dannevirke Open, the New Plymouth Open and managed to qualify for the North Island Final 5 competition, a match between the best five C grade shooters in the island, and won. As part of the Wanganui Represeritative team, Donna helped achieve 4th placing at the Outdoor Nationals, last year in Tokoroa. Add

to this the second place at the Levin Open and one can see the record of a champion shooter, but not a well-known one. "Lot s of people don't recognise shooting as a sport", Donna said, "as it's a sport for the mind." While a rugby player has all their playing and training in the open, this 'sport for the mind' only has the early nights to show for training and the reduction of social life is not easily undcrstood by friends. "People can't see concentration" she says, "although I feel it, particufarly on the elbows!" Dedicated to achieving more in the sport, Donna prefcrs outdoor shooting to indoor, for the challcnge of further distance, and is currently saving for a rifle of her own, which could cost over a thousand dollars, in ordcr to refine her shooting skills.