Shooting to Victory

15 June 2012

BU student wins an array of medals in international shooting tournaments.

Ben Monksummers, a sportBU Scholar returned home after a successful ten days shooting with an array of medals and trophies, as well as a place in the Great Britain men’s rifle team and a personal best.

Ben, who is a Law student at Bournemouth University (BU) had the most amazing 10 days of his shooting career at the beginning of June.

At Bisley, the home of British shooting, he won the Junior Champions Trophy as the top scoring under 21 year old, and also making the eight man senior final and achieving the top score in the ten shot final.

He then travelled to Oldenburg in Germany for a four nations match as part of the Great Britain Team, competing against Germany, South Africa and Sweden. In the 50m prone rifle match, Ben finished in a gold medal team place.

Before the end of the final day news had reached Ben that he had secured a place in the three man rifle team for the European Championships which will take place in Bologna, Italy, in July.

In his final event, spurred on by the exciting news of the European Championships, Ben scored 397 out of 400 in the prone phase of his 3P. This was a world level performance, a personal best helped win a team silver medal.

Debbie Timberlake, Sports Performance Manager for sportBU said: “Ben is one of our highest performing scholars who works incredibly hard to develop and improve his skills and we are very proud of his achievements and wish him every success in Italy.”

Ben is now the proud owner of over 10 international golds, over 5 silvers and 12 bronze medals.

Ben said: “Shooting for me is my life and passion and without the help and support from BU I would never have reached this level. Shooting is the only sport I have truly been really good at but it means so much to me and this has been a fantastic year thanks to team GB my coaches and sportBU.”