TWO teams of Isle of Wight marksmen have set their sights on winning medals at the Island Games 2023 in Guernsey.
The inter-Island competition will run from this coming Saturday until Friday, July 14.
Team Isle of Wight has a host of sports men and women representing us, and we are introducing you to them ahead of the big competition.
The target shooting team, competing in 40 of the possible 44 competitions within 14 different event categories offered, is comprised of Matt and Imogen Reed, Perron Phipps, Shelley Sprack, Jai and Sophie Nolan, Guy and Toby Moss and Dom Cowen.
Most of the events have individual and pairs competitions, while some of the team are only in a couple of the competitions and others have up to eight.
The team is in safe hands, managed by Tony Elgar and Dave Lewis, with more than 50 years of target shooting experience.
Tony has been involved with all types of target shooting since 1967, gaining his first competition medal a year later and has since been part of the GB shooting team, as well as being a licensed instructor and national judge, while Dave, another long standing competitor, with a military background, is a national coach.
There is also plenty of medal winning Island Games experience in the team.
Matt Reed has performed in Rhodes, Jersey, Gotland and Gibraltar, and amassed a haul of ten medals, while wife Imogen (formerly Moss), has won the same amount of medals and holds three Island Games records with sister Shelley (now Sprack).
Shelley, also a GB shooting team member, has been to a number past games and also won ten Island Games medals, while Peron Phipps has won past games medals.
Toby Moss, Shelley and Imogen's younger brother, will be attending his second Island Games, and will compete in the air rifle events alongside his brother Guy, another veteran of many past games.
Jai Nolan, another past games competitor from the early days of the games, is making a comeback, alongside daughter, Sophie, the team's newest competitor.
Tony said: "There are high hopes of medals in these games. However, one big problem our team faces is the very tight UK gun laws, which has seen some competitions require the use of pistols unavailable, or able to be used, in the UK.
"The team has to borrow suitable pistols from the host island to be able to compete.
"But even with borrowed pistols in the past, we've won many medals and I see no reason for anything different this time."
The clay shooting team, managed by Mark Siebenmann and Jennie Cartwright (also competing), comprises Dan Bishop, Mark Downer, Lee Pitman, Katie Bishop, Sarah Franklin and Glenn Fitch.
They also go to Guernsey with bags of past Island Games experience.
Mark Downer won gold and silver medals respectively at the 2011 and 2015 Island Games, while Lee Pitman, with three games under his belt, won team gold and individual bronze in 2011 on the Isle of Wight, followed by sportrap team and sporting team silver medals in Jersey 2015.
The number one ranked shooter on the Island, Dan Bishop, with three Island Games to his name, won bronze in Guernsey 2003, followed by two gold medals on the Isle of Wight in 2011, and triple silver in Jersey in 2015.
Jennie Cartwright, the top ranked woman on the Isle of Wight, who represented England in the World Championships in Texas last year and won silver, attended the Island Games in Jersey 2015, winning sporting team and sportrap team gold medals, and sportrap individual silver.
She said of the team's prospects in Guernsey: "We are fielding a great team for the Games and hope to repeat our successes of 2015.
"The team have been practising hard and are ready for the challenge of what will no doubt be a tough competition."
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