Border shooting sensation James Willett kicked-off his 2019 campaign in style with four gold medals at the Australian Clay Target Association National Championship in Brisbane.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Willett won three of the open men’s national titles – the national men’s trap, national trap high gun and Commonwealth men’s trap, as well as the Commonwealth mixed teams event with Laetisha Scanlan.
He was very pleased with his national men’s trap form – shooting 121 out of 125, before prevailing in a shoot-off with Danny Di Petrio after the pair were tied at 44 from 50 targets in the final.
“Something I want to work on this year is my finals scoring,” Willett said.
“You go back to single barrel for the finals, whereas the event is double-barrel, so you only get one shot at the target.
“It’s just trying to fine-tune that in some ways.
“I was happy with my finals results from the week in Brisbane and just want to work on that for the big events this year.”
Willett has adjusted well with his switch from double trap to trap shooting following last year’s Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
After finishing fourth at the World Championships in South Korea last September, Willett has improved his trap ranking to six.
His ultimate goal is to be on the team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
“Olympic selection will be late in the year or early next year, but our qualifying scores are from last year onward – 120 out 125 is the benchmark,” he said.
“I shot 121 in the nationals, so that’s another score for my ranking which counts towards World Championship and World Cup selection throughout the year.
“Everything is going to count for Olympic selection, you’ve got to be performing well all the time.”
Willett heads to Cyprus and Qatar for Grand Prix events in February, before tackling World Cup meets in Mexico and the UAE during March and April.
- Receive our daily newsletter straight to your inbox each morning from The Border Mail. Sign up here