Picture: RAPHAEL ROSS – SHOOTING AUSTRALIA
MOUNT Gambier sharpshooter Bridgette McKinnon has spent the last week in prestigious company, competing in the Tokyo Olympic selection trials at the Lake Macquarie Clay Target Club in New South Wales.
The 21-year-old represented her country in the Australian Skeet team at the Oceania Championships in October last year and through that event shot a minimum qualifying score (MQS), which made her eligible for Olympic selection.
She is one of five Australian women who qualified in the Skeet discipline and the only South Australian to do so.
This year’s Olympic qualifiers are more of a learning curve for McKinnon, but she is proud to have made it so far.
“It’s pretty exciting,” she said.
“Even though this year the selection events are as far as I’ll get, it’s a pretty big achievement to get there.
“I still have a long way to go and a lot of learning to do, but I am proud of how hard I have worked to get this far.”
Only one Olympic position will be awarded to Australia in the women’s Skeet discipline this year, as the number of places for each country is determined by results leading up to the Olympics.
“The country needs to have a quota spot for the sport to be able to send someone to the Olympics for that sport,” McKinnon said.
“These can be won by placing first or second at world cups or first at Continental Championships in the two years leading up to the Olympics.
“Laura Coles won a quota for Australia at the Oceania Championships for her placing in the women’s Skeet, so there is only one Olympic spot up for grabs.”
A total of four selection events will be held over the coming months, which will finish with one Australian woman receiving the call up to compete in the Olympic Skeet event.
“There are four selection events – two in Newcastle which were this week and then one in Melbourne in a few weeks time and another in Sydney a couple of weeks after that,” McKinnon said.
“Each competition (this week) had a qualifying section – five rounds of 25 targets shot over two days – and then there is a final where the top six qualifying scores go forward and compete in an elimination style final.”
Shooters’ qualifying scores over their top three events are then added up, with bonus points for making finals – six points for the winner, down to one for sixth place.
From there the biggest overall scorer will receive the Olympic selection.
McKinnon qualified sixth to make the final on Tuesday in the first event, but was knocked our of the final after 20 targets to bag a single bonus point.
“Unfortunately I have not competed as well as I would have liked to over the first couple of events,” she said.
“But there are still a couple more to go so I’m hoping to improve on my scores during those events.”
Regardless, these trials will be a valuable learning experience, as McKinnon competes against some tough opposition.
“Commonwealth gold medalist Laura Coles is looking good to win the quota spot at the moment, but Rio Olympian Aislin Jones is definitely still a contender having shot well over the first couple of events,” she said.
As far as age goes, McKinnon is one of the younger competitors at the selection trials.
“There is a bit of a gap between most of us,” she said.
“Aislin is a year or two younger than me, but the other girls are all a few years older than us.”
Currently on her summer University break, McKinnon said she has been busy working and has not been able to train as much as she would have liked in preparation for the trials.
“I have been working two jobs to save money for the year ahead which means I unfortunately have not had as much time to dedicate to training as I would have liked,” she said.
“Looking forward I would like to establish a more concrete training schedule – time and money allowing.”
But one thing is for sure – she will soak up all the experience she can over the coming events in hopes to keep smashing goals in the years ahead.
“These events will be a learning experience,” McKinnon said.
“I’m not a true contender at this point – I am simply too new to all of this.
“I hope to use these events to build experience and get used to the pressure of competing at a higher level.
“I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity I was given to compete for Australia at the Oceanias and I’m aiming to keep training to make further selections like this a possibility in the future.”
The New South Wales event wraps up tomorrow, while at this stage McKinnon hopes to compete in both coming events in Melbourne and Sydney, in order to get all the experience she can at the high level.
“I still have to move back to Adelaide which might overlap with the Melbourne one, but I am trying to get to them both,” she said.
