General News
4 July, 2023
Baku-bound
CAMPERDOWN’S Penny Smith will be hoping to add to her growing list of titles at next month’s World Championships.
CAMPERDOWN’S Penny Smith will be hoping to add to her growing list of titles at next month’s World Championships.
The talented 28-year-old shooter has once again been named in the Australian team for next month’s ISSF World Championships to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The championships will see the best shooters from all over the world gather to compete in pistol, rifle and shotgun events.
Following her medal-winning performance at the World Cup earlier this year, Penny (shotgun women’s trap and ranked world number one) was one of the first athletes selected for the world championships team.
She will be joined by men’s world number two, James Willett, in the mixed teams’ competition.
Also selected in the Australian squad were Catherine Skinner (shotgun women’s trap), Sergei Evglevski (25m rapid fire pistol), Nathan Argiro, Laetisha Scanlan, Mitchell Illes, Aislin Jones, Joshua Bell, Elena Galiabovitch, Bailey Groves, Dane Sampson, Jack Rossiter and Elise Collier.
Team-members were selected based on where they placed on a performance leaderboard after a four-competition domestic selection series of events that finished earlier this month.
The members also needed to meet the minimum performance standards outlined in the World Championships team selection criteria.
As Penny and her fellow team-members prepare to contest the most significant competition in 2023, and a crucial competitive opportunity against the world’s best in preparation for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Shooting Australia’s high performance manager Kathryn Periac congratulated those selected.
“Our goal is to support our world championships team to enable strong performances by each of the athletes at this event,” Ms Periac said.
“This will, in turn, support critical Paris Olympic qualification requirements such as winning quota places and securing individual qualifying ranking points for the Olympic Games.
“Our athletes have developed and prioritised team values and behaviours to create the environment they want to be part of, and in which they can excel, and we will be working with them to deliver an experience that is successful and positive for everyone.”
The team will arrive in Baku on August 14, with competition to start three days later.
The nomination criteria for Paris 2024 will be released following the world championships.
