With the barrel of his shotgun still smoking, Jake Mackenzie has vowed to finish higher at next year’s FITASC world sporting championships following his performance at the event’s 32nd annual shoot in Arezzo, Italy, a fortnight ago.
Mackenzie was one of 1157 shooters from around the world that took part in the four-day event.
The Mudgee shooter described the world championships as “very hot” and “incredible”.
“The size of the event was huge compared to Australia. At Warrnambool last year there were about 600 or so. At Italy it was doubled,” Mackenzie said.
Shooting in 40-degree plus temperatures, Mackenzie, who was the number one ranked junior shooter for Australia, finished with a total of 157 targets from a possible 200.
His score was the 21st highest in the junior division but he finished 30th overall because some shooters tied.
Italian Michael Spada won the junior section with a score of 188 and two shooters followed him from Great Britain, Phil Gray and Chris Papworth who scored 185 and 183 respectively. Britain’s George Digweed was the overall winner with a staggering score of 197.
Mackenzie said there were eight layouts and every one of them had their own difficulty.
“The targets were all different speeds and different colours,” he said.
“Some were unique. In Australia we have rabbit targets. They had one that came out of a tree and dropped into the water.
“Some were behind bushes because it was very dense. You really had to concentrate.”
From his eight rounds - each round had 25 targets - Mackenzie shot 22, 22, 20, 20, 14, 20, 16 and 23.
“I started OK then had a couple of bad rounds in the middle, I finished well on the last day.”
His Australian team finished seventh out of the junior teams.
“Our team was made up of new juniors who were in the teens compared to the Italians and Britons who were 20. We gave it our best shot.”
Mackenzie said he had a great sense of “pride” when he walked out with his fellow Australian teammates for the opening ceremony wearing his Australian shooting jacket.
“To stand there wearing your Australian jacket was an achievement I always wanted to do.”
The achievement didn’t stop there for Mackenzie, he was ranked fourth in the junior section of the world cup.
The world cup collates shooters from three national and international shooting events. For Mackenzie it was his scores from the Grand Prix in Victoria, the Oceania championships in South Australia and the world championships.
However the 17-year-old was originally told he finished third.
“I was told I was third so I thought it was pretty exciting, I finished third in the world cup. But when they were calling up first, second and third they called the South African shooter [Michele Cicognani] in third.”
The results for the world cup weren’t available so Mackenzie couldn’t double check.
Despite the controversy he said he would look towards future shooting events.
“I’m going to do it [the world championships] again. Next year it is in France.
“Hopefully with that bit more experience I finish higher in the rankings.”
There is no rest for Mackenzie as he has the state championships in Sydney in a fortnight, the national championships in Western Australia in September and the five-stand shoot in New Zealand.
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