Two of the young Scots who won shooting medals in last weekend’s Australian Youth Olympic Festival have spoken of their delight at winning for their country.

Lasswade’s Rory McAlpine won the gold in the Men's 50m prone rifle event and Falkirk's Jennifer McIntosh, daughter of former Commonwealth Games medallist Shirley McIntosh, took the bronze in the Women's 3 position rifle. 

Their medals contributed to an outstanding Team GB haul of 68 - 26 gold, 16 silver and 26 bronze medals. 

The pair were also medal winners at the Commonwealth Youth Games, held in Pune, India, in October.  At those games McIntosh was a silver medalist while McAlpine took bronze.

“I trained incredibly hard for this, I managed to stay relaxed and I’m relieved more than anything that all the work has paid off,” said Rory, after stepping of the plane at Edinburgh Airport today.

McAlpine, who turned 18 last week, showed steely nerves when two of his targets jammed in the final.  As a consequence he finished his match 45 minutes after the field but still he produced an impressive 591 points from a possible 600.  He was followed into second by Northern Ireland’s Mathew Hall.

“On my first target, the rubber on the target stopped which meant the scoring wasn’t accurate so I had to move to another one,” said McAlpine.  “The same thing started happening to that one as well so I had to move to another one to finish. It took a lot longer but the main thing I had to do was keep focussed and keep going.

“I’ve only ever had 591 points in one previous competition and I’m very happy with the score.”

Finishing third in the Women’s 3 Positions was especially pleasing for McIntosh, following on from her fifth place in the air rifle event.

“It feels pretty good and it was a good confidence boost after my air rifle which didn’t go as well as I’d hoped,” she said.

“It gives you that extra push you need now and again to remind you “yes you can do this,” and it makes you want it more.  Now I feel I really want to go back to the range and train harder than I did before. 

“Yes I got bronze but I want gold.  It helps a lot with that drive to train and do better.”

“It was a great experience to be part of a British team that did really well and all the shooters came away with a medal.”

Supporting both athletes in their endeavours is the Scottish Area Institute of Sport network - its expert teams work together to deliver essential support services locally in sports medicine, sports science and strength and conditioning.

“I’m getting physiotherapy support as well as Strength & Conditioning training and I shoot a lot better as a result of going to the gym on a regular basis,” said McIntosh, a member of the Central Scotland Institute of Sport.

McAlpine, supported by the East of Scotland Institute of Sport, said, “Shooting is mostly in your head so it’s good to have the psychology support.  I’ve had a meeting to discuss Strength & Conditioning training, which I’ll start pretty soon.”

The AYOF provided the perfect opportunity for McAlpine and McIntosh to prepare for a major Games and test themselves against the best in the world. The experience was highly beneficial to both shooters. 
 
“London 2012 would be incredible but there are a lot of good male prone shooters in Britain, so 2016 could be a more realistic ambition,” said McAlpine.

“It was an amazing experience, to be part of such a successful team and be around athletes from so many different sports, get a taste of an Olympic experience.”

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image courtesy of Rob Eyton-Jones