Thirty-six air gun competitors from all over Alberta competed in the annual Eldorado Air Gun competition at the curling rink in St. Paul this past weekend.
The competition featured a fully electronic, portable shooting range, according to its organizer, Russ Whitford, a local coach and coordinator, and president of the Alberta Small Bore Rifle Association. “(The range) is an imitation of what you would see at a world championship, World Cup, Olympics and Commonwealth Games,” said Whitford.
Whitford credits Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two Hills MLA Ray Danyluk with the success of getting the portable range for the competition. “We had help from the Alberta Government with their Community Initiatives Development grant,” said Whitford.
“There is still a black area where the pellet goes,” explains Bernie Harrison, one of the officiates of the competition, “but electronics figure out how close it is to the centre.”
Harrison has been officiating air gun competitions since the late ‘70s, and is currently waiting for a travel visa from the Indian embassy in Vancouver to enable him to travel to New Delhi for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.
In local results, Mikayla Mailloux won the sub-junior category of ladies’ rifle with a combined score of 734.6, while Jordan Sinclair won the sub-junior category of men’s rifle with a combined score of 1170.1. In the seniors category of men’s rifle, Brian Kotowich would come in third with a combined score of 933.6. Devan Bailey and Stuart Kotowich were the two other locals who came out to participate in the event, but their final scores were not available.
