Ellesmere College students shooting for the stars with sport success

A group of students from a Shropshire school are shooting for the stars with a series of successes in pistol competitions to take them to national finals. The Ellesmere College students impressed both individually and as a team at the West Midlands and North West Championships.

The senior competition saw an Ellesmere College team made up of students Francine Gilmore, Christopher Astbury and Oliver Loud take first place. It means this team goes through to the national finals - but each of these students also qualify for the individual finals after impressive performances on their own too.

Francine has been ranked ninth for shooting nationally in her category while Christopher and Oliver have been ranked 19th and 23rd respectively out of more than 100 competitors.

A team of fellow Ellesmere College students Bea Taylor, Joshua Norris and Harry Taylor also took third place in the same competition last month (DEC).

The students, who are between year 11 and 13 at Ellesmere College, complete their studies alongside a training schedule of two to three days a week in the school’s Shooting Academy facilities.

Academy Coach Tom Rylands said he was very impressed with the efforts of all the students: “We have some incredible talent in the Shooting Academy right now and I am very pleased to see all of these students be recognised for all the hard work they are doing. They all richly deserve this success thanks to a fantastic attitude to both their academic studies and their sport. We will now put in many hours to give these students the best chance of success at the finals and what I know will be a long international shooting path ahead of them.”

The students will now take part in the national final of the British Shooting Schools Pistol Championships in February.

For more information, please visit Ellesmere College Shooting Academy.