Steady shooters bring Shetland first medal of the games

From Neil Riddell in Åland          Photos by Kevin Jones

Team Shetland has its first medal of the 2009 Island Games in Åland thanks to the steady hands and eagle eyes of shooters John Magnus Laurenson and Bryan Sutherland, who won a bronze medal in the team skeet event on Monday afternoon.

Their score of 170 left the pair tied with the fourth-placed Cayman Islands team, but they have been elevated to the podium after a count back showed their score in the second 50 rounds was better than their rivals’. A veteran of several games, Laurenson – who has previously won two silvers and three bronzes – said he was pleased to have got Shetland onto the medal table.

Sutherland’s 86 points from a possible 100, coupled with Laurenson’s score of 84, was enough to give them the medal at the renewed and enlarged Bredno shooting range, set in a glorious location deep in the heart of a vast forest to the south east of Mariehamn.

Prodigious young shooter Daniel Shacklock from the Isle of Man, meanwhile, recorded a remarkable 94 total and it looks as if the 15-year-old will be tough to beat in the individual events later in the week.

“It was very good, very close,” said Laurenson. “We ended with the same score as Cayman, didn’t shoot just as good as we can, but we’ll maybe pick up a bit at the end of the week. There’s some good shots here, especially the young boy from the Isle of Man.”