Sharp shooting sisters, Aislin and Renae Jones, of Lakes Entrance, returned from the ISSF Oceania Regional Championships in Sydney having both claimed places on the podium.
The crucial event for Australia to gain quota places for the Tokyo Olympics was conducted last week at the Sydney International Shooting Centre, which was the venue for shooting events at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Over the first two days of the event Aislin competed in women’s skeet against athletes from across Australia, and a full team from New Zealand.
A solid 69/75 on day one had Aislin just off the top of the leaderboard, one target behind Western Australia’s Laura Coles and several targets ahead of fellow Rio Olympian, Chloe Tipple, of New Zealand.
While conditions had been excellent on the first day of competition, wind on day two picked up early and made shooting the small targets, which are just 10cm in diameter and travel at 100km/h, challenging.
Aislin couldn’t catch Coles to claim top qualifying place and went into the final in second position.
The challenging final saw amazing displays of sportsmanship from the New Zealander, with Tipple highlighting to the referee that targets he called lost were hit on two occasions by Aislin. The referee chose not to award them.
The disjointed final concluded with Tipple in the gold medal position, Coles taking home silver and Aislin earning the bronze. With Tipple already having taken a quota for Tokyo early in the year at the Acapulco World Cup, Australia claimed the quota for this event.
The combined qualification scores of the Australian team of Aislin, Laura Coles and Cherie Reeves collected the gold medal in the teams event over New Zealand.
This ensures a busy six months for Aislin at the start of 2020, as she competes in the first two selection events at the ISSF National Championships, which will be held at the Australian Clay Target Association in January.
The sole spot for an Australian in the women’s skeet at the Tokyo Olympics in July will be selected from the four event series in Newcastle, Melbourne and Sydney. The series concludes in March.
Aislin’s week of success continued into the weekend, with the Shooting Australia Awards of Excellence dinner on Friday night. The ceremony awarded athletes across all Shooting Australia disciplines.
After a year of solid finishes in most open international competitions and good results in junior international competitions, Aislin was awarded the Shooting Australia High Performance Athlete of the Year 2019 in the junior women’s category.
Aislin’s younger sister, Renae, who has been a rising star in the women’s trap event over the past 12 months, competed as a member of Shooting Australia’s B team at the Oceania Regional Championships.
The B team consisted of three junior Australian team members, with Renae being joined by Charlie Hudson-Czerniecki and Georgia Pistone, of Melbourne.
She shot in a fairly well credentialed squad of five, alongside 2016 Rio silver medalist Natalie Rooney, of New Zealand, 1996 Atlanta bronze medalist, Desirie Baynes, and 2000 Olympian athlete, Lisa Smith. Her score of 110 would have placed her fourth in the overall final, however B team athletes are not eligible to make finals under the ISSF rules. They are eligible for the team medals taken from combined qualification scores.
At the conclusion of day one, the Australia B team sat just four targets behind the New Zealand team and nine targets behind Australia A.
However, both Renae and HudsonCzerniecki put in stellar performances on day two with the former shooting her first perfect round of 25/25 in round four. This was followed by 24/25 in round five to make a new personal best of 110/125.
Combined with Hudson-Czerniecki and Pistone’s scores, the team score of 323 was enough to pass both New Zealand and Australia A, earning the B team the top spot on the podium at presentations.
The score also set the new women’s trap teams’ Oceania record.
“The feeling of being on the international Renae heads to Canberra next weekend for podium for the first time and having the the ACT Championships at Majura Park, Australian flag raised to our national anwhile Aislin flies to New Zealand for the them was remarkable and has inspired me for the future,” Renae said.
New Zealand National Championships in American skeet.
PICTURED: Sharp shooting sisters, Aislin and Renae (inset) Jones, of Lakes Entrance, returned from the ISSF Oceania Regional Championships in Sydney having both claimed places on the podium. In the women’s skeet Aislin finished third behind Chloe Tipple, of New Zealand, and Western Australia’s Laura Coles, while Renae was part of the Australia B team that topped the team event.
