AIMING FOR SUCCESS
Trap-shooter Sharon is fully focused on Gold Coast medal bid
Armadale trap- shooter Sharon Niven says she has her targets set on grabbing a medal at next year’s Commonwealth Games.
The 42-year-old was named to the Team Scotland squad last week following a tremendous year and she insists that she won’t be going to Australia just to make up the numbers.
She commented: “I’m absolutely delighted to have made the squad for the Commonwealth Games.
“I found out a few days before we were allowed to tell anyone so I had to keep that in.
“It was really an ongoing process throughout the year and you keep tabs of your own scores and then how everyone else is getting on and try to figure out where you rank and what you need to do to get a place in the team.
“To be honest, I’ve had the best year of my career. I’ve performed at the highest level and got endless personal bests but I still had to double check all the criteria to make sure and although I knew that I had done enough to be in the team, you don’t know for certain until you get that phone call telling you so it was a mixture of joy and relief when I found out I’d made the team.”
Sharon narrowly missed out on a place at Glasgow 2014 and admits that disappointment is something that drove her to succeed this time round, saying: “I said at the time that I wasn’t going to go through that again and that I was totally determined to be going to Gold Coast in 2018.
“I just had total belief that I was going to do it and was utterly determined. When you want something really badly, you have to go out and get it and that’s what I’ve done. Nothing else mattered, I probably drove my family a bit mad with it all to be honest because there were lots of spells where I didn’t see that much of them but hopefully they’ll all think it was worth it.”
The Team Scotland nod came a few weeks after Sharon shot a personal best at the Commonwealth Games test event in Gold Coast, something that she says fills her with confidence ahead of next summer’s challenge.
She said: “It was great to shoot well there because that’s where the event will be held and I felt at ease and totally comfortable.
“That was the aim of going over there and competing in that event so I was really happy with how it all went. It’s really game on now. The goal is to come back with a medal and I know that I have the ability to do it, no problem. That would be the dream.”
Sharon is currently looking for sponsors to join her team. If anyone is interested you can contact her via Facebook at www.facebook.com/shazniv or on Twitter @shazniv.