TSNZ OUTDOOR NATIONALS 2023
Christchurch 18 - 25 February
Awards Ceremony, with presentations made by TSNZ President Steve O'Donnell
Daily reports and results were added daily as they were sent from the event, with the most recent being added to the top. Thanks to Shania for providing these.
DAY 6 - the final day of the 2023 TSNZ Outdoor Nationals saw the International Matches being shot in the morning. The weather was very calm and resulted in some good scores. The second detail of Juniors however did have breezy conditions.
The Association Teams match was very breezy, easily 20kph, which when added to the distraction tactics from teams and supporters, along with shooters having to be scoped by one of their team-mates, made this match the usual fun event.
Click on the links below for Results.
DAY 5 - Today the women had their Randle match where they shot 20 counting shots each at 50yards and 100yards. There is not much we can say about this match to ensure we don’t give anything away to our overseas competitors who shoot in June, however I am very proud of the effort of the women this year. We did get a brief moment of sunshine during the 50-yard portion before it returned to the characteristic grey and gloomy skyline.
While this was happening the men had their Qualification Match with the now usual weather conditions, very cold 10 degrees and wind 15—20 kph with a dash of rain for good measure. There were more than a few frozen trigger fingers and a bit of shivering to deal with. The end result was Ryan Taylor taking top spot with a 621.9 and Grant Taylor in second with 617.7.
At 1pm the Inter-Island competition was shot under similar weather and the mighty South Island won with a score of 6071.5 against 6052.0 for the North. The South Island’s performance was greatly enhanced by the performance of the previous-North Island shooting duo of Helen and Jon now shooting for the South as they've moved to Marlborough.
In Bench Rest news, today Russell Henshaw finished in top spot after a great score of 399.32 giving him the overall lead in the competition, ahead of Graeme Smith in second place by 9.20 points.
The International and Association Matches will be shot tomorrow, with the presentation dinner then rounding out a great week of competition here in Christchurch.
Click on the links below for Results.
2023 Men's Qualification RESULTS
DAY 4 - The biggest success so far of the TSNZ Nationals happened this morning in the Womens National Champs - we finally had a squad without any overloads or crossfires. Go the Women! The Women’s squad however was breezy with the occasional calm patch, with wind ranging from 15-20 kph. This wind condition continued through out the day with peaks in the third men’s squad of 15-25 kph.
The Women’s National Championship was won by Shania Harrison-Lee with 620.2 (592), second place Stephanie McNair not too far behind with 618.3 (589), and third place went to Denva Wren with 608.8 (582).
The men shot their Elimination match today spead over two details, with top score being Ryan Taylor with 621.2 (593) in the first detail, and Ryan Booth in second place with 612.5 (583) followed closely by Jon Phillipps with 610.3 (584). The top 10 men from each detail go forward to the Qualification Match tomorrow, when the Men's National Championship will be decided.
The Women's NZ Randle team finished off their day with a practice at 100 yards in the rain to get ready for their match tomorrow morning, where they will shoot a dual-distance match of 20 shots over each of 50yds and 100yds against UK and USA. Congratulations to those women who have qualified for the Randle Team this year.
Island Teams and NZ Teams to shoot the Wakefield, Slazenger, and Drew matches have also been decided after the matches today. Congratulations to all those who made the 2023 teams, especially those for whom this might be their first time shooting for New Zealand.
The most loved part of today was a mixture of hot coffee from the coffee van on site, and the fire lit in the club rooms which kept everyone warm on a gloomy 10 degree day.
Click on the links below for Results.
2023 Womens National Championship RESULTS
2023 Mens Elimination Match RESULTS
Click on the links below for Island and NZ Teams.
2023 Slazenger / Wakefield Teams
DAY 3 - Squad 1 today was greeted with a cool southerly breeze, 14 degrees Celsius and 15-20kph winds. There was a quick scramble to find a warm hat as many competitors realized the conditions would not improve.
Ryan Booth and Jim Dann are to be congratulated for beating the conditions and posting good scores of 606.9 and 604.7 respectively. These scores would later turn out to be the best across all competitors.
Squad 2 was A and C Grades and unfortunately the weather got quite a bit worse as the morning rolled on. With steady rain and average wind speeds of 31kph, quite a number of shooters decided to move their mats back to the 51 meter mark to avoid the rain on the front sight. With gusts up to 40kph this was not as effective as they wanted it to be.
The real test was who could avoid the gusts that were capable of pushing shots to the left into the 6 or 7 ring. Making it even harder was a large number of range flags had become stuck or twisted to their flag poles leaving shooters without flags for small portions of the match.
The best way to visualize today’s conditions is noticing only 3 of 39 competitors made it into the 600’s, with Benchrest struggling with a tie for top score of 394.26 by Graeme Smith and Tony Titheridge. I bet some of them regretted their choice to squad on today’s conditions.
Now if everyone reading this could please cross their fingers and toes… tomorrows weather may just improve for us yet.
Click on the links below for Results.
DAY 2 - It's official - Christchurch can produce conditions resulting in personal bests that rival the best conditions seen at the Mana 2021 Nationals.
The first squad of today had windless conditions for the first 40 minutes, flags barely twitching. Benchrest shooters showed the way with their top 3 all gaining 399 out of a possible 400. The Prone athletes couldn't quite match that, with Owen Bennett topscoring in whole scores with 593 (619.2 in Decimals) , and Ryan Taylor winning A Grade beating Owen with 623.9 in Decimals (592 whole score).
Benchrest is a growing part of our sport with 12 participants this year and should be on everyone’s watch list.
The second squad had to deal with Christchurch's classic conditions of left to right wind that dies down for a short time and switches to the opposite direction. This was challenging for most, but a great introduction to the rest of Nationals week.
Squad 1 made life challenging for themselves, with several more cross fires (this will be reflected in some people’s results). Thankfully Squad 2 was not plagued by the same problem. Otherwise, the range ran smoothly thanks to the hard work of our many volunteers.
Click on the links below for Results.
DAY 1 of the 2023 TSNZ Outdoor Nationals in Christchurch saw the 3P and the Prone Badge Match being shot.
It was a testing start with a few technical range difficulties, but these were overcome. During shooting it seemed competitors were having their own difficulties finding their own targets, resulting in 3 crossfires! More than a few competitors found today's weather conditions challenging, with 26 degree temperatures and strong left to right winds, strong enough to see horizontal flags.
Thankfully our 3P shooters had a great morning with minimal wind conditions allowing them to pull off 150 strings, as well as 4 in a row 10s from Shaun in the standing Final. Congratulations to Denva Wren for her victory in the Womens Final, and Owen Bennett for his in the Men's Final.
Click on the links below for Results.