HPP duo crowned British Champions

Two HPP athletes, Coral Kennerley (Air Pistol) and Dean Bale (Air Rifle) were both crowned British Champions in their respective disciplines at the British Airgun Championships this weekend.

Coral Kennerley, Commonwealth Games and multiple Great Britain international, won the senior women’s air pistol competition.

“My qualifying match started well but managed to shoot a 2 on my 29th shot of qualification, which is really bad! Usually I'd be shooting 9s and 10s. I've been working on a new technique with my coach which works well most of the time, but was also the reason for the mistake as it's quite a recent change” she said.

After recomposing for the remainder of the 40 shot qualification round, Coral shot 369 qualifying for the final in fourth position. Coral came up against other Commonwealth Games athletes, English shooter Victoria Mullin, fellow Welsh shooter Shawnee Bourner and Scottish shooter Caroline Brownlie.

Coral had a bit of a shaky start going into the final but around half way she got into the lead.

“I managed to hold my lead until the final shot of the competition to become British Champion. I was glad to get my name back on the cup!”

Dean Bale backed up his BUCS Short Range Rifle gold medal from last weekend to take gold in the Senior Men’s Air Rifle competition. He finished qualification in second with a score of 616.6, 1.8 behind his brother Jack Bale, who is ranked number one in Great Britain in air rifle.

“For the majority of the final I was shooting a lot better than earlier and was leading the finalists by the half way point” he said.

It came down to sibling rivalry for the last two shots to decide the gold and silver medallists.

“I had a strong lead but my heart rate was very high at this point and I shot two 9s compared to my brothers two 10s. Fortunately, the lead I had built up throughout the final was enough defend first place” he said.

As a new finals format was introduced at the start of 2017 and this was the first domestic competition, Dean now holds the new British Senior and Junior Air Rifle Finals Record.

Also competing at these Championships was Ruth Holloway who finished 13th in the Senior Women's Air Rifle and Rachel Joyce finishing 6th in the Junior Women's Air Pistol. A great weekend of competition for all involved.