Nor'West News: August 11, 2022
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NEWS<br />
North Canterbury <strong>News</strong>, <strong>August</strong> <strong>11</strong>, <strong>2022</strong><br />
Millie-Jane is aiming for higher honours<br />
By JOHN COSGROVE<br />
<strong>11</strong><br />
The top woman shooter on the day at last<br />
Sunday’s North Canterbury Secondary<br />
School clay target champs, was 16yearold<br />
Hurunui College student, Millie<br />
Jane McIlraith.<br />
MillieJane picked up several awards,<br />
including being amember of the<br />
winning ladies team with fellow<br />
Hurunui College student Maggie<br />
Fergusson, and the third highest point<br />
scoring senior award, with ascore of 85<br />
out of 90, only three points behind the<br />
top shooter overall.<br />
Amember of the New Zealand Open<br />
Women’ Skeet Clay Target shooting<br />
team, MillieJane says it was agood<br />
competition.<br />
‘‘I did very well, Iwas using it as a<br />
buildup for the National Secondary<br />
School Shooting competition which will<br />
be held in Christchurch in October, and<br />
then the following month, Ihope to be<br />
competing in the NZ National Skeet<br />
Shooting Championships.’’<br />
Over the weekend 70 competitors<br />
came from eight high schools and were<br />
arranged into five groups competing in<br />
the skeet shooting section and 12 in the<br />
rise section.<br />
MillieJane said it was fun to be there<br />
among so many good competitors.<br />
Her father, Robert McIlraith, says it<br />
was so good to see so many students<br />
competing there.<br />
‘‘It was great to see all the kids there,<br />
there is aheap of talent out there in<br />
secondary schools and it bodes well for<br />
the future of competition shooting in our<br />
country.’’<br />
MillieJane, who is also the chair of<br />
the Hurunui Youth Council, has ahectic<br />
schedule and yet she somehow manages<br />
to fit all her training in each week.<br />
This includes travelling from the<br />
family farm in Harwarden to Waihora<br />
Agreat aim ... MillieJane McIlraith, 16, of Hurunui College takes aim during her winning session on the range at the North Canterbury<br />
Secondary School clay target champs.<br />
PHOTO: RICHARD COSGROVE/NORTH CANTERBURY FISH AND GAME COUNCIL<br />
near Tai Tapu each weekend to train at<br />
the Waihora Clay Target Club, to shoot<br />
over 100 targets each week, and to take<br />
part in anumber of shooting<br />
competitions held in other locations<br />
around the South Island.<br />
Her recent run of winning<br />
performances over the past couple of<br />
years has been rewarded by sponsorship<br />
deals offered by Kilwell Sports and Gun<br />
City.<br />
‘‘The Amberley Gun Club have always<br />
been ahuge support to me and all the<br />
other other junior shooters,’’ she says.<br />
Now her goal is to do well in both the<br />
Secondary School Nationals, and again<br />
in the New Zealand Skeet Nationals.<br />
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