The fact that the Team finished a mere single target behind Bronze medal winners Russia was little consolation however.
High scoring was the order of the two days with Germany’s Karsten Bindrich setting a new World Record having scored 124 in the opening competition to be followed by 25 straight in the single barrel final.
Best placed of the Irish was Beijing bound Burnett who having finished on a total of 120 ex 125 saw scores of 121 shoot off for a place in the final. Having found himself on a squad of only four shooters, getting into a steady rhythm was to prove almost impossible and over officious refereeing with regard to time limits resulted in any pre-shot routine being severely hampered under the circumstances.
Colin Tanner was next best with a score of 119 and having struggled a little on day one with scores of 24, 23 and 23 he stormed through day two with 49 ex 50.
Current ISSF World Championship silver medallist Philip Murphy had a mixed weekend of one 25, two 24’s, a 23 and a 22 to finish a target further back on a final score of 118.
Full results from the Olympic Trap events are available as download attachments.
The High Performance Programme now begins the final leg of the Pre-Olympic preparations with Derek Burnett and HPP Director Kevin Kilty heading to Singapore in the coming weeks for acclimatisation and further training before heading on to Beijing at the end of the month.
