Banff shooter, Kay Copland won bronze, the first ever medal for Scotland in this event, in Sunday’s International Shooting Competition of Hannover.  

The 18 year old had been competing in the 50 metres Rifle Prone, the same discipline in which she won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India, last October.

“I don’t really shoot against Germany and they’re really good at it so I didn’t know if a medal was possible,” said the University of Aberdeen music student who is supported by the Grampian Institute of Sport.

“I went to this event last year and didn’t shoot up to standard.  That got me quite annoyed and I went back this year adamant that I would do so much better and I’m really pleased that I did.”

In Hannover Kay equalled her personal best score of 594, shot in the Czech Republic in 2007.  She tied for second place, one point off the lead, but in the tie break just lost out on the silver medal. And she achieved this result having recently changed to using a new rifle as part of her plan to switching to the 3 Positions discipline.

“I wanted to start the 3P and Donald McIntosh (Scottish Target Shooting’s High Performance Manager) said I would need something a lot shorter and lighter so I’ve been using it for a month and settled in pretty quickly,” she said.

“It’s three inches shorter which makes it so much more balanced and it feels like you’re holding nothing.  The rifle I had been using before was meant for someone a lot taller and stronger.”

With the season entering its busiest phase Kay will compete in a Grand Prix event at home this weekend before heading abroad at the start of June for a junior international in the Czech Republic.