Massive hit: Jane Vella (left), FACTC president Paul Calvi, Laetisha Scanlan, and Charlie Galea celebrate the FACTC’s highly successful Australian awards night. Picture: Supplied.
THE FRANKSTON Australia Clay Target Club (FACTC) collected several awards over a highly successful weekend in New South Wales from Friday 2 November to Sunday 4 November.
The club won four awards at the 2018 Shooting Australia Awards for Excellence night on Saturday 3 November before also taking home numerous medals from the ISSF Skeet and Trap NSW State Title / Shooting Australia Open.
At the awards night, FACTC won the Club of the Year award, the Volunteer of the Year award, the Grassroots Coach of the Year award and the Female High-Performance Athlete of the Year award.
The Volunteer of the Year award was won by FACTC secretary Jane Vella, the Grassroots Coach of the Year award was won by Charlie Galea and the Female High-Performance Athlete of the Year award was won by FACTC member Laetisha Scanlan.
The awards took into account shooting clubs from all around Australia and also involved all three shooting codes, being shotgun, pistol and rifle. In the shotgun class alone, there were around 300 clubs eligible for the award.
Frankston Australia Clay Target Club secretary Jane Vella said it was an outstanding achievement for the club and its members.
“It was a good weekend for us all,” Vella said.
“We were nominated for four categories and we were finalists in all of them. We then managed to win them all.
“We’ve put a lot of effort into the shooting sports and trying to grow it as a whole because grassroots is where it all starts for all of the professionals.”
While in NSW, the FACTC members also found success at the ISSF Skeet and Trap NSW State Title / Shooting Australia Open which were held at the Sydney International Shooting Centre (Cecil Park Gun Club).
On top of winning her Female High-Performance Athlete of the Year award, Commonwealth Games gold medallist Laetisha Scanlan also won gold in the Shooting Australia Open as well as being named the High-Performance Series Winner for Ladies Trap in 2018.
Scanlan also won a gold medal in the mixed team’s event alongside James Willett on the Friday night.
Another Commonwealth Games competitor and FACTC member, James Bolding, also competed at the state titles.
Bolding won gold in the Shooting Australia Open before also being named the High-Performance Series Winner for Men’s Skeet in 2018.
FACTC members, Mat Costa and Keith Ferguson, also competed in the Shooting Australia Open where they finished third and fourth respectively. Keith Ferguson went on to also win his AA Grade in the NSW state titles.
The state titles were the last selection event for the early-2019 World Cup events. The Australian National Championships in mid-January held in Brisbane will also be used as selection for the later-2019 World Cup events.
To conclude the year, the FACTC will also be hosting the Universal Trench State Titles where 96 competitors from around Australia will be competing. The event kicks off on Friday 23 November and will run until Sunday 25 November.
