about a year ago

The event, which took place in Antalya, Turkey, from April 30 to May 4, 2012, was one of the last opportunities for the squad to prove themselves ahead of selection and saw the British squad face stiff competition from 116 participants from 24 countries.
 
Britain’s men led the GB field, taking team gold in the R4 10m Air Rifle SH2 Mixed, with Richard Davies, James Bevis and Adam Fontain combining to take the team title ahead of Greece with silver and Serbia with bronze. In the individual contests Richard also took the bronze medal, shooting 597 and 104.9 to finish third with a total score of 701.9. Gold was won by Michael Johnson who shot 600 followed by 105.1 to take the top spot with 705.1. Britain’s Ryan Cockbill just missed out on the podium places finishing fifth, while GB’s James Bevis, Adam Fontain and Georgina Callingham finished 14th, 16th and 23rd respectively.  
 
The men’s team gold was followed up by a team bronze for Britain’s women in the R3 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 Mixed, with Deanna Coates, Lorraine Lambert and Mandy Pankhurst, combining to take third spot behind Slovakia with gold and hosts Turkey with silver. In the individual competition, gold was won by Radoslav Malenovsky of Slovakia; silver went to Iurii Stoiev of Ukrane and bronze to Haksun Kim of Korea. Coates, Lambert and Pankhurst finished 11th, 18th and 23rd respectively.  
 
Britain’s Adam Fontain just missed out on winning an individual medal in the R5 10m Air Rifle Prone SH2 Mixed following a tough shoot out against Serbia’s Zdravko Savanovic. Seven shooters, including Adam, went into the finals having shot perfect scores of 600 in the qualification rounds. In the finals Gorad Tirsek of Slovenia shot a new finals world record of 106.8 to take the gold medal, with silver going to Minna Leinonen of Finland, with a total score of 705.3. Both Adam and Zdravko Savanovic shot 104.5 in the finals leading to a shoot out for bronze. In the shoot out Adam shot 10.5, while Savanovic shot 10.7 to secure the final medal. Brits Richard Davies, James Bevis, Georgina Callingham, Ryan Cockbill and Sarah Woods also competed, finishing 9th, 11th, 12th, 16th and 23rd respectively. The GB team of James Bevis, Georgina Callingham and Ryan Cockbill did however combine forces to take the team silver, and Britain’s fourth medal of the world cup.
 
There was a British four and five in the R2 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 Women, with Deanna Coates and Mandy Pankhurst just missing the podium, with respective total scores of 485.8 and 485.7. Gold went to Veronika Vadovicova of Slovakia (491.2), silver to Cagia Bas of Turkey (487.9) and bronze to Jelena Pantovic of Serbia (486.5). Britain’s Lorraine Lambert finished ninth with 379.
 
The team now goes on to compete in the International Shooting Competition in Hannover Germany.

“The British squad put in some top performances at this competition."Pasan Kularatne

Head Coach and Team Manager, Pasan Kularatne, said: "I was particularly excited to witness Adam Fontain shooting 600 in the R5 but it was such a shame to see him miss out on the medal in the final shoot off by just 0.2 points. He should still be really pleased with his performance. I was also pleased to see Richard Davies win the individual medal in the R4 competition.”
 
Britain was represented by nine shooters at the event, including Deanna Coates, James Bevis, Mandy Pankhurst, Lorraine Lambert, Richard Davies, Ryan Cockbill, Georgina Callingham, Adam Fontain and Sarah Woods. The team was supported by Head Coach Pasan Kularatne, Performance Rifle Coach Robin Taylor, Rifle Coaches Louise Minett and Andrea Zakor, Physiotherapist Jo Hipkiss and Support Staff Albert Cockbill, Shawn Gregory, Nik Badger,Calvin Torres and Yiannis Konstantonis.