Australia’s Veterans Team (60 years and over) has successfully defended their world championship title won in NZ in 2019 to become the World Champions in long range fullbore shooting for the second time in a row!
The team, headed by Captain Neil Gibbins and Manager Scott Brindley, set a new world range record score at the 600m of 497/500, beating the previous mark by 3 points. The competition was across 4 Ranges at distances of 300m, 600m, 800m, and 900m. The Team won all range distances, with the exception of the 800m, where South Africa scored 3 points higher.
All shooters performed brilliantly on the day with top scores going to Mike Chad narrowly ahead of Neil Gibbins, both with 197’s. The team was coached by Open/Palma Team master coach, Geoff Grenfell, together with Jim Bailey and Steve Negus. Jim had earlier won the 2024 TR Veterans Individual World Title (fantastic work Jim!), so knew the Range and its idiosyncrasies well.
Click here for Match scores.
In addition, a big congratulations also goes to the following team members for their top 10 individual successes at the Veterans (60yrs and over) and Super Veterans (70yrs and over) World Championships:
Veterans World Championships
1st Jim Bailey
2nd Scott Brindley
5th Jim Jeffery
Super Veterans (Over 70yrs) World Championships
1st Jim Jeffery
Australia’s full team was:
Captain and shooter – Neil Gibbins
Manager and shooter – Scott Brindley
Master coach – Geoff Grenfell
Coaches – Jim Bailey and Steve Negus
Shooters –
Mike Chad
Derek Sharp
Chris Maher
Doug Pollock
Jim Jeffery
Geoff Grosskreutz
Brett Thurtell
Mark Buchanan
Reserves – Barbara Schwebel, John Kiefer
PS: The Veteran’s Team would also like to acknowledge the fantastic support they received from Australia’s Open/Palma team and the U25’s team. It truly was a TEAM AUSTRALIA effort which enabled the wonderful results for the Veteran’s Team.
