2018 ISSF World Cup Series updates

I am currently at Fort Benning, Georgia for the USA stage of the 2018 ISSF World Cup Series. Finished up today's men's 10m pistol event with a 562 and 17x's. This is my second highest World Cup score and I believe the most x's I've ever shot.

The competition is going well. Picked up on a couple things I need to work on after having a similar mid-match performance in Guadalajara, Mexico a couple months ago in March. The 3rd and 4th series in the match giving me a bit of trouble then I finish strong. I'll get the middle of the match as consistent as the start and end and it will give my scores a boost.

Mexico went well in March. I shot at that range in 2014 at the Championship of the Americas and went back there this year to work on some of the issues I ran into in 2014. So far this ISSF season has been going well.

Me shooting in Guadalajara at the start of the
2018 ISSF World Cup season in March 

Coming up next will be the Canadian Team Trials in Cookstown, Ontario and then I'll go from Toronto to Munich, Germany for the World Cup stage there.

My best finish at a World Cup event!

I shot my best World Cup score to date at the USA stop of the 2014 ISSF World Cup series. My 565 is above the Olympic MQS but low compared to the rest of the field here. In order to place in the top 8 to make Finals you needed to shoot a 582 or higher -- to give some Canada perspective you need to tie the Canadian National 10m record to make the cut.

I started out strong on my first 30 shots but I also burned through a lot of my time to do that. Shots 31-48 I felt the pressure of time ticking away and I let my performance slip a bit. Thanks to the SIUS electronic scoring you can see all all of my shots from the entire match here and complete results can be found on the ISSF website.

Two months for me to improve on my pacing and mental strategy to get ready for the World Cups in Munich, Germany and Maribor, Slovenia in June.

Also got to meet 1976 Olympic gold medalist Lanny Bassham today! Awesome!

Looking forward to 2014

It's been awhile since I've posted an update here and I figured with 2014 off to a great start, I better get some news on here. If all goes to plan I'll have a busy year of travelling to various shooting competitions all over the place. Awesome!

First up... some events in Canada:

• Feb 14-16: 2014 Canadian Airgun Grand Prix - Toronto, ON
• Mar 7-9: BC Airgun Championships - Richmond, BC
• Mar 14-16: City of Calgary Airgun Championships - Calgary, AB

Then as a member of the National Development Team representing Canada on the 2014 ISSF World Cup Tour. The first stop will be held on March 26-April 3 at Fort Benning, USA - more information can be found on the ISSF website calendar.

The ranges they have at Fort Benning for ISSF competitions are excellent, definitely some of the best I've been to in North America. I've competed there twice in the past already (2011 USA Fall Selection & 2013 USA Nationals) so that will be an advantage going into that competition.

After that ISSF World Cup, I've got limited travel planned until June when I'm hoping to get to the back to back World Cup events happening in Munich and Maribor. Not many details are up online for those two events yet though.

Next post will have details on the three 'local' shooting clubs I train at!

For more frequent (and often tech or sports related) updates follow me on Twitter at @alharding.

Results from first event

The 10m men's event is over and I finished as the 'High Visitor'. Shooting at the US Nationals you aren't able to go past the qualification to get into Finals if you aren't from the US. This also excludes you from being able to get any of the bonus points that they give out to the top 8 finishers.

My result from the first match was 564/600 which is a decent score for me. Before I got back into shooting in 2007 (after my 12 year break) my highest score had only ever been a 566/600. To give some perspective the Olympic minimum qualification score they'll accept is 563 but typical world class scores are in the 580 range with 594 being the current World Record out of a possible 600 points.

My second match went better, started out really strong with a 98 and finished the day with a 567/600 with at least six of my 60 shots being 9.9's. They only count as a 9 but when they show up on my screen they show it in a decimal so you know how close to the next scoring ring you are. 9.9 is as close to 10 as you can get. In the pistol discipline though a 9 with any decimal behind it is still only scored as a 9. Knowing I had soooooo many close shots felt good though. Makes me realize I can still improve a lot more!

My score of 567 / 600

My next event is the 50m outdoor event shot with my Pardini FPM which takes place on Saturday and Sunday morning. 

More updates to come! And check out @alharding on Twitter to get updates there!

At US Nationals!

Caught up with members of the Canadian rifle team (Ben Taylor, Mack Kohl, Connor Deneka, and Audry-Anne Dery) in Atlanta this past Friday. We tried to coordinate our trips so we'd all get in around the same time and well... this sort of worked. :)

Once we met up we explored a bit of downtown Atlanta and checked out the Centennial Olympic Park which was for the 1996 Summer Olympics. I always love seeing the legacy venues created for Olympic games and have been fortunate enough to see quite a few of them in North America. I can now check off Atlanta from my list. We called it an early night and got up early to go to the Georgia Aquarium and Zoo Atlanta. The aquarium is amazing, one of the largest tanks in the world!

One of four massive Whale Sharks!

Relaxing panda @ Zoo Atlanta!

After taking in some of Atlanta (a bit sad we missed out on the Braves game!) we started on our 2 hr drive to Columbus, Georgia which is just outside of Fort Benning.

Once we got settled we got to the range and got ourselves checked in and going through the equipment control process. As a pistol shooter this was about a 10 minute process, for my fellow rifle shooting team mates, depending on when you got in line, it could take up to 2 hrs to get through. Good time to go for lunch and come back later! ;)

I'll post up results here on the evenings after I shoot but you can also check them out as they get posted online on the USA Shooting website - scroll down to '2013 Rifle & Pistol National Championships'.

Thanks to all my new followers following me @alharding! Don't mind all the tech tweets, I do have a day job! ;)

Competing at the US Nationals next month!

A month from now I'll be competing at the US Nationals at Fort Benning, GA. I'm registered to shoot 10m and 50m ISSF events. This will be my second time shooting there but my first time shooting the 50m event. Last time I shot there I did well enough to qualify for the Canadian National Development Team for 2012 and I expect to do better at this event.

I'll be missing the BC Provincials in a couple weeks. If you're planning on attending make sure to get your registration forms in ASAP.

After US Nationals I'll be attending the Canadian Nationals in Calgary in August.

Made my cut score, finished 10th overall!

What an amazing two days of shooting. I saw both Will Brown and Alexander Chichkov break their own National Records. Will shot a 585 besting his previous record of 582 which he set in July at the USASNC and Alexander (who was shooting next to me today) shot a 575 beating his own record of 570  he set at 2011 USASNC. It's hard to believe these guys are juniors!

I'm happy with my results and was able to shoot a 567 which easily beats the cut score to qualify for the 2012 Canadian Development Team. Definitely some more work to do and I picked up on a few things I can be doing better. It's always good to watch great shooters -- they're doing something right! ;)

Results from 2011 Champion of Champions ISSF 10M at Fort Benning

I made it to Atlanta and Columbus Sunday night... what a long day travelling from Vancouver! The next day I went to Fort Benning and got lost trying to find where the event was -- there are a lot of ranges there all named after people.

Here are the results from the first match this morning at the 2011 Champion of Champions event at Fort Benning, Georgia:

Click to view a larger image

The score is high enough to make the necessary cut score for the 2012 Canadian National Development Team. Exciting!

One more day of shooting to go...