by Zoe Condon
Colac shooter Tom Holt has only one major concern about travelling to Ireland to represent Australia later this year.
He’s not bothered by carrying the expectations of the nation, nor of cracking under pressure against some of the world’s best young shooters.
Rather, Holt is worried about the flight between Ireland and Australia.
“The flight is like 24 to 30 hours long so I’m not looking forward to that,” he said.
Holt will pack his bags in August to represent Australia in the World Down The Line Championships in Ireland.
“It’s the first time that I’ll travel overseas but I am mates with the other two people in my team so it shouldn’t be too bad,” he said.
Holt qualified for the Australian junior team after recording a top three finish at a national competition in Wagga Wagga.
“To qualify for the team we shot single barrel, double barrel and a point score shoot,” he said.
“After the three events, I shot a 489 out of 500.
“I wasn’t really happy with the score because I have shot better before and I knew that I could do better. I wasn’t overly excited about the score.”
Holt said he qualified for a Mackintosh team after finishing in the top five.
As part of the Mackintosh team, the five shooters shoot another 100 targets to select the top three shooters to represent Australia in Ireland.
“The scores from these targets and our previous score got added together and the top three get to go to the world championships
in Ireland,” he said.
“I shot down 22 which gave me a score of 778 from 800, and I got into the top three.”
Holt said he was not sure what to expect when the plane landed in Ireland but he hoped for a good competition and the luck of the Irish.
“I just really want to go over there and have a good competition,” he said.
“When we arrive in Ireland, we have a few warm-up events before the world championships.
“The warm-up shoot is a week before the titles and I think they are the Ireland national championships.
“It will give us a chance to get use to the targets and the weather conditions before the worlds.”
Holt said the weather was the biggest difference between shooting in Australia and shooting in Ireland but he was up to the challenge.
“I can’t wait to get over there and shoot to see how I go up against the rest of the world.”
Tom comes from a family of shooters with his sister Amanda and cousin Sarah creating history last year.
Amanda Holt attended the World University Games in Bangkok last year and she was the highest placed Australian when the games finished in fifth place.
Sarah was the first female to win an overall award in the Victorian Secondary School clay target shooting championship in the 30-year history of the competition.