Brydon getting ready for Para Trap World Cup shoot

Scott Brydon (with another competitor Mark Farrow) at last year’s Para-Clay Grand Prix shoot in Italy. ▪ File photo

Local Clay Target shooter Scott Brydon is jetting off to Italy this month to compete in the first Para Clay Target World Cup event.

World Shooting Para Sport, which has adopted the shotgun discipline of Olympic Trap into its program, announced the event will be held in Lonato, Italy later this month.

Brydon qualified for the Para Trap World Cup by shooting the best score out of the nine competitors at the recent National Qualifying round in Queensland.

Four of the competitors were in wheelchairs and five were standing competitors.

Brydon will compete against other shooters in his category and said he hopes to go at least one better than in last year’s Para Trap Grand Prix, also held in Italy, where he finished in fourth place.

Competitors must first pass a qualifying round with 125 targets. Only the top six scorers will continue to the next stage.

From there the finals consist of four rounds where the lowest contestant is dropped at each round.

The final two competitors then shoot 10 targets to determine gold and silver positions.

Brydon has been training in Canberra where he has been living for the last few months.

He returned to Cobar to compete in the Golden Clay Target event but reports he was disappointed with his efforts on the day.

At the Sydney Cup earlier in the year, Brydon did however shoot one of his best ever scores of 105/125.

(It was an open event and had no disabled category.)

At the Queensland Titles Brydon won the disabled category and he also competed at the Nationals event and only narrowly missed out on joining their Open team by a couple of points.

He’s currently in Canberra completing final training before flying out to Italy.

Brydon explained the 2017 World Cup is being held to allow the rules, regulations and classification system to be tested further in order to be added to the list of official sports to be held at the 2022 Paralympic Games in Paris.

Brydon has received financial support from many clubs and businesses to help fund his Italian trip including receiving assistance from Hermidale Gun Club, Nyngan Rural Agriculture and Nyngan Toyota.