Waipukurau shooter aiming high
Speculation that most shooting events will be dropped from the next Commonwealth Games could end up costing Waipukurau’s Chris Harrington a shot at sporting glory.
“I am only just getting to the stage where I am considering how far I want to go in the sport, and it’s a pretty time-consuming sport with two young boys, but it would be disappointing to have that option taken away,” said the 34 year old, the youngest member of the Ruahine Smallbore Rifle Club, based at Sherwood School.
While the self-employed builder and father of two young sons, aged three and six, concedes he might not be at elite international standard just yet, his form over the last year or so — rising to Master Grade as well as representing his country — suggests he is not too far off.
At this month’s Rees Scroll teams of 10 event at Te Puke on May 12, contested by 163 top shooters from 15 shooting associations from Wellington to Auckland, the only shooter to beat him was his good friend and Olympic and Commonwealth games representative, Ryan Taylor.
“Yep my shooting has been going well. I’m really competitive and like winning. There are a lot of good shooters throughout New Zealand and realistically I’m probably only in the top 10 at the moment.”
The Southern Hawke’s Bay team that Harrison was a part of — which included NZ representatives Luke Sigvertsen, Robbie McNair, Ruth McNair, Taresa Morris and Lachie Mcnair — finished eighth out of 15 teams. Individually, Harrison shot a score of 397.27, only behind Taylor’s score of 399.28 — out of a maximum of 400.40 points.
“The .10 refers to how many of those shots are bulls eyes. So I shot 397 points out of 400, and out of my 40 shots, 27 of them were bullseyes. We call them inners.”
Last year Harrison won the Master Grade at the North Island champs with a score of 399.25, but lost the final by a mere two points. He and Luke Sigvertsen were also members of last year’s victorious North Island open team at the national championships.
That led to Harrison being named in a New Zealand Team, picked from the North vs South Island match, to take part in the annual shoot against UK Home Counties, which NZ won by a solitary point.
He and Sigvertsen were also picked in a North Island team to shoot a postal match against Scotland, but this time they lost by just three points.
Harrison and Sigvertsen are gunning for selection in North Island Open team again this year by doing well at a series of qualifying shoots, the last of which is in Whanganui on June 30.
There is speculation that most prone shooting disciplines will be omitted form the next Commonwealth Game in Birmingham in the UK in 2020 due to a lack of venue, but Harrison said if that happened he would be
content vying for national and Oceania titles. Most of all, he was passionate about promoting and gaining new members for his precision sport, which appeals to his competitive nature and perfectionist streak.
“Shooting as a sport can be controversial between those who like to shoot and those who see guns as being bad. Firearms can be used safely and with great enjoyment,” he said.