The Newfoundland and Labrador Shooting Association concluded their Warm-Up Air Gun competition ahead of the Canadian Air Gun Grand Prix in Toronto later this month. A total of 12 athletes ranging from 13 to 41, and first timers to seasoned national team shooters competed in air rifle and air pistol.

The main events, in terms of both number of competitors and intensity of competition, were definitely the men's and women's air rifle events. This is because in the qualifying round results were both of high quality and very close together with several ties and two points where up and coming Canada Games athletes had surpassed seasoned national and former national team shooters.

After the men's qualifying round junior and prospective Canada Games athlete Ben Taylor held a two point lead on former national team member Dave Woolridge in the men's event. As the two went into the finals Woolridge shot a 7.3 to Taylor's 9.2, giving Taylor an early lead of 5.9 points. However, as the finals are an additional 10 shots scored to the nearest 10^th of a point, even this lead was not necessarily insurmountable. A consistent mid way performance by both competitors and a dropped shot by Taylor had eaten away Taylor's lead. After the 9^th shot, Taylor only held on to a 3/10 of a point lead over Woolridge. Woolridge's 10^th shot scored 10.2, Taylor's 10^th shot was an 8.2: this was all it took to put Woolridge ahead of Taylor by 1.7 points. Final scores were Woolridge 661.2 and Taylor 659.5.

Still with men's rifle another duel was playing out for 3^rd and 4^th. After the qualifying round Dave Ficken and Jason Harnum were both tied at 523. Ficken was declared 3^rd by apply a count back rule to break the tie. The tie was only broken by counting back 20 shots from the end of the match. This is a common situation in international shooting competitions but relatively unheard of in Canadian matches. Both Ficken and Harnum went into the finals neck and neck. For Ficken this was his second competition and first finals, but Harnum, a Canada Games hopeful, had to fall back on his three years of experience, to pull in a better performance than he did during the qualifying round. At the end of the finals Harnum finished with 616.1 for third place and Ficken finished fourth with a respectable 606.6.

Not to be out done, the women's rifle event was equally gripping. With three competitors all made it into the finals. In the qualifying round, newly named SFC National Development Team shooter Brenda Greene was edged out of first place by Canada Games hopeful Samantha Marsh. Both girls tied with qualifying scores of 377 but using ISSF tie breaking rules Samantha finished with the higher final string of ten shots to be ranked first. After the first shot of the finals both girls were still tied but, from the second shot on Brenda's experience kicked in as she steadily built her lead securing first spot after the finals with a total score of 476.7. Samantha Marsh finished in second with 469.0. While in third place Meghan Harris set a personal best with a 411.6. Both Samantha and Meghan are potential provincial team members for the 2011 Canada Winter Games.

Though fewer in numbers we did see several new pistol shooters. In the men's event, St. Joseph's native Richard Power took first with a 474, while René De Haitre of Gatineau, Quebec finished with a 446. In her first shoot Emma Meulenkamp, a Canada Games hopeful, fired a respectable 255.

The seven rifle finalists and Richard Power will be representing our province at the Canadian Air Gun Grand Prix in Toronto from February 19 - 21. These shooters have been making significant improvements since last year's Grand Prix where they took home a total of five medals.

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