British Shooting are set to launch a nationwide search for athletes across all shooting disciplines (shotgun, rifle & pistol) as part of a new Talent ID campaign, Target Tokyo.
Working in conjunction with the Performance Pathway Team; a collaboration between UK Sport and the English Institute of Sport, the recruitment drive is targeting focused and motivated individuals who have the desire to represent Great Britain and reach the Olympic podium. The ultimate aim of the project is to identify those shooters that have the potential to be developed for the 2020 Olympic Games.
Previous UK Sport led Talent ID campaigns have unearthed athletes such as Sochi 2014 skeleton champion Lizzy Yarnold, London 2012 champion Helen Glover and Taekwondo athlete Lutalo Muhammad, who won Olympic bronze at London 2012.
The Talent ID campaign is just one aspect of the Performance Pathway Team’s work at British Shooting which will focus on the development athletes, coaches and managers who have the capacity to impact on future Olympic and Paralympic Games.
British Shooting are entering an exciting stage as it looks to enhance the GB Performance Pathway and have launched a GB Academy Programme (GBAP) that will aim to recruit and develop the next generation of target shooters to ensure continued success at future Olympic Games and World events. The primary aim of the GBAP is to produce a consistent supply of target shooters to the world class programme who clearly demonstrate that they have the potential to become world class athletes, capable of achieving world leading results at the Olympic Games.
Olympic champion Peter Wilson said: “It’s a breakthrough for British Shooting to be looking at the talent side of the sport; we’ve always had a lot of focus on the world class aspect, but nothing feeding that. This is really very exciting; it’s the start of a new era for British Shooting and British shooters.”
“Where we stand with our athletes; we’ve never been so strong. The future is bright for British Shooting and hopefully we can build on this with medals at the Commonwealths this year and medals in Rio in two years’ time."
Seeking to build on Peter Wilson’s London 2012 success, British Shooting have undertaken a system overhaul with a focus on more systematically identifying and developing future champions, in a bid for success at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Launching in August, Target Tokyo offers an exciting opportunity for existing shooters to attempt to take their performance to the next level and for shooters of all disciplines to examine the possibility of training and competing in the Olympic disciplines with a view to being a potential Olympic medallist. If you are a shooter and believe that you have the dedication and potential to reach the very top, sign-up from 5 August at the UK Sport Talent page.