SHOOTING
The shooting range has unfailingly hosted the warmest sense of community and amiability.
It has been a crazy year for excitement and successes on Sevenoaks School’ s shooting range. Our little community has been brightened with the arrival of Miss Potiakova, and our Head Coach, Mike Bargeron, returned as an Olympian of the Paris 2024 Games! Students have fostered a strong sense of camaraderie within the club and have all made progress to be proud of.
We kicked off the year with captain Rafe Wormsley and vice-captain Isabel Wen selected for the Great Britain Drew Team and the BSSRA’ s National English Schools Team, with Tracy Wang and fullbore captain Sam Tansley gaining honours.
In the English Schools Championship, Aryana Mahdavi Ardestani and Oliver Peters( both Year 11) achieved third for junior pairs. During the BSSRA Winter Open, Upper Sixth students secured first and fourth places. Individual progression has also been tracked through scoreboards and contests, such as the coin challenge: measuring how tightly shooters can group a series of five shots( for juniors) or ten shots( for seniors). This year, Oliver Peters was the highest scoring senior with 11.1mm, while Gabriel Lam gained 10.4mm for juniors. Regarding the overall average board( out of 100), Isabel gained the highest score of 97.80, followed by Tracy with 96.80 and Sasha Woodruff with 96.70.
Summer introduced friendly( and determined) competition for the coveted Henderson-Thynne trophy. Amanda Zhang( Year 11),‘ the giant-killer’, unseated seasoned seniors, including last year’ s victor Rafe, before ultimately being toppled by Isabel for gold. It will be interesting to see if future victors break the pattern of being Sixth Formers, as Amanda came close to achieving! The club has also broadened its ventures into air rifle, where we( Rafe and Isabel) became part of the British Shooting Development Pathway and have represented Sevenoaks competitively.
Laughter is a constant on the range at Sevenoaks and friendly support is guaranteed. Special thanks to our coaches who are central to the team’ s progression and warmth within it. It’ s been an absolute pleasure to experience such incredible displays of skill and spirit, and we’ re confident that the community will only continue progressing and excelling.
Isabel Wen and Rafe Wormsley, Upper Sixth
SEVENOAKS SCHOOL 2024-2025
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