The 2023 Oceania Shooting Championships are underway in Brisbane with the first of the 14 available Paris 2024 Olympic Quotas secured on Wednesday by Australia’s Siobhan Nicholls. This quota is the first for the Australian Pistol team leading into the Paris Games.
Nicholls with her 25m Women’s Pistol Oceania Championships Gold Medal
Nicholls (Western Australia), who is competing in her first international championships this week, progressed through to the 25 metre women’s pistol championship final following a second place ranking at the end of the qualification match.
Of her qualification Nicholls said “I wasn’t uber confident. I actually came out of it feeling a little bit nervous about the final. We had a lot of wind this morning which we didn’t have in PET [pre event training] yesterday so I think everyone had a pretty challenging match and definitely not ideal conditions”.
When asked how she managed to calm her nerves between qualification and the final, and the opportunity to win a quota for Australia, Nicholls said “I did flick my coach back home a quick message and got a bit of a reset from him and just remembered that the match is done now and it is a different event and just to come in [to the final] with a clear head and do what I know I can do.”
Nicholls during the final
The last three athletes in the final were Australians, with Elena Galiabovitch (Victoria) and Alison Heinrich (South Australia) joining Nicholls to contest the medals and the Olympic Quota, Nicholls reflected “I think it is an amazing opportunity to be competing against two amazing women that are Elena and Alison…and I’m so grateful to stand beside them. I just used it as an opportunity to put the pressure on myself to see what I could do.”
Nicholls’ next event will be 10m Air Pistol on Friday.
Galiabovitch finished the final with the silver medal 2 points behind Nicolls, and Heinrich with the bronze medal. The Australian Team A of Nicholls, Galiabovitch and Heinrich won the 25m Women’s Pistol Championship Team gold medal. Australia Team B won the silver medal and New Zealand Team B the bronze medal.
Today will see the 10m Air Rifle Championship contested.
Left to Right: Silver Elena Galiabovitch, Gold Siobhan Nicholls, Bronze Alison Heinrich
Shooting Australia in conjunction with it’s broadcast partner KOJO, will be live streaming the Championship Finals via the Official Shooting Australia Facebook page and YouTube Channel.
The ISSF and the Olympic Channel will be sharing the broadcast to their channels.
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Jane Vella
Shooting Australia Event and Communication Manager
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