In May this year I headed out to Osijek in Croatia for the 25/50m European Championships. The team consisted of myself, Toby Aberdeen and coach Paul Taylor. I competed in the 25m Sport Pistol, Toby competed in the 25m Rapid-Fire Pistol and we both competed in the Mixed Pairs event.
Over the four days in Osijek, I got to shoot in the pre-event training for both the precision and rapid stage of my sport pistol match before competing in each event. This allowed me to experience the range conditions and get used to the new environment! As this was my first 25m international I went into it without expectations, hoping mainly to gain some good experience for subsequent competitions. Although this was the case, I was very happy with the outcome of my match as well, finishing with 283 in my precision and 276 in my rapid. This put me in 28th place overall with 559/600.
We also had the opportunity to shoot in the mixed pairs event which was good fun and meant we had an extra chance to compete! We finished in 13th overall with a final score of 560/600.
Francine and Toby shooting in the "25m Pistol Duo".
Alongside the shooting it was also lovely to see some of my international shooting friends and meet new athletes and range staff too! This event was such good experience and I really enjoyed the atmosphere on the 25m range so I'm looking forward to the next opportunity to be part of this again!