The IPC (International Paralympic Committee) Shooting World Cup is to be held at Stoke Mandeville Stadium, Buckinghamshire this year from 1st to 3rd October.

It is the first time the event has been held in Great Britain and the birthplace of the Paralympic Games provides a fitting venue for this exciting event. Holding this event in Britain not only gives the athletes the valuable opportunity to compete on home soil and in front of a home crowd but also helps broaden the knowledge of disability target shooting amongst the nation. The organisations involved in this event aim to create awareness of disabled sport and promote real talent and opportunities for disabled people. We hope that this awareness persuades people to try out disability shooting for themselves as well as other sports that they would have perhaps not have experienced before. 

Esther Appleyard from Accentuate, one of the sponsors of the IPC Shooting World Cup said, “Accentuate is delighted to sponsor the Shooting World cup as part of our project Major Events. Accentuate is a transformational programme of 15 projects, inspired by the Paralympic Movement, which seeks to change perceptions and offer opportunities to showcase the talents of deaf and disabled people.”

Lucy Crickmore, Events Consultant at UK Sport, said, “UK Sport is committed to bringing world class sporting events to the UK ahead of 2012, in what we believe will be the most comprehensive pre-Games events programme ever staged by an Olympic host nation. We are delighted that the IPC Shooting World Cup 2010 will be part of this programme.”

Lindsey Horton, from Tourism South East said, “We are very proud to be involved in this event. It sits very well with our aim to become Britain’s most accessible region in preparation for London 2012 including the improvement of facilities, levels of service and welcome for the disabled and their families and friends”. 

There are around 75 shooters taking part in this competition from 15 nations around the globe including Thailand, USA, Poland and Great Britain.

The recent Shooting World Championships in Croatia showed the British team to be on great form, winning two silver and two bronze medals. Great Britain are now one of the most highly respected nations in Paralympic Shooting which gives the British team great confidence for the World Cup.

Pasan Kularatne, the head coach and performance manager for the GB Team said “I am feeling confident about the World Cup and I am looking forward to it. The athletes are all training hard and I think it will be a very exciting competition.”

The athletes representing Great Britain in this event include Beijing Paralympic Gold medallist Matt Skelhon, who won three medals at the recent World Championships, Nathan Milgate who made the final in his first ever Paralympic Games in Beijing and Di Coates, winner of an incredible eight Paralympic medals over a career spanning seven Paralympic Games.

There are two main categories for disabled shooting, SH1 which is disability not affecting the upper limbs, and SH2 where there is some upper limb impairment. SH2 shooters place their rifles on a spring loaded stand when shooting. The event will feature 10 metre target shooting in both rifle and pistol disciplines. The aim is to shoot as close to the centre of the target as possible, from the outside edge of the circle awarding the shooter one point to the middle scoring ten points. The athletes make it look incredibly easy, but the accuracy required to achieve a high score is extremely difficult to achieve with one slight wobble causing you to go off target.

The event also aims to get local people involved with a community programme including school taster sessions during the event and a volunteer scheme.

Ian Barham, Buckinghamshire manager for the 2012 games said, “We recruited local volunteers to support the event. The volunteers will receive pre-event training in a number of issues relating to event management and accessibility issues. If you are interested, a number of opportunities still remain to support this event. If you would like to be involved please contact Ian Barham on 01296 585184 or email ibarham@bucks2012.org.