ON TARGET FOR TOKYO
Shooter in top form ahead of third Olympic games
SHOOTING: Two-time Olympic shooter Dane Sampson is on target for Tokyo after recording personal best results and a gold medal at the recent South Australia State Championships.
After coronavirus prevented international events in the lead up to the postponed Olympics, Sampson said he was ready to compete. “It’s a very different kind of preparation because we don’t have the international competitions that we normally had,” he said.
“But we are doing the best we can with competitions, and some online competitions have helped a bit – it’s better than nothing.”
Sampson, who learned to shoot in Coominya, was selected to represent Australia at the Tokyo Olympics in March last year for the 10m air rifle and 50m rifle three position events.
He said Australian Olympic athletes were in the queue for the coronavirus vaccination before they departed for Tokyo.
“Having the jab beforehand certainly makes you feel better. But, it’s more if you get the virus, you get pulled out of the village straight away and miss events,” he said.
“It might seem trivial, but when your focus is on your competition, you make it a priority.”
Sampson lives and trains in South Australia with the SA Institute of Sport but remains a true Queensland competitor.
Recently, Sampson broke his Australian National finals record for the 50m rifle three positions event for the second time in five weeks, taking home a gold medal.
The 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympian bolstered his confidence for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, bettering his old Australian Nationals final record by 1.3 points on his way to victory.
His scores were superior to the 2016 Rio games performance set by Italian shooter Niccolo Campriani and the 2018 World Championship score by Poland’s Tomasz Bartnik.
“It’s good to be shooting PBs at this stage. It was a world class finals score, and you are unlikely to lose many competitions with that score,” he said.
“I definitely feel that I am getting better and better and I am tracking well for Tokyo.”