Over 500 rifle and pistol shooters from 39 nations took part in the second European Championships of 2019. Hosted in the Italian city of Bologna, this time it was holding the 25m and 50m events.

With the Olympic Games creep ever closer, the championships provided one of the last chances to secure a place for Tokyo 2020. So, the pressure was on. ELEY shooters Celine Goberville and Lorenzo Bacci seized the opportunity, each winning a quota for their home countries. Goberville took the quota for France in a tense 25m pistol women’s final. Bacci secured Italy’s ticket to Tokyo in the 50m 3P rifle men’s final after finishing 5^th.

This brings the number of quota places won using ELEY ammunition to 47.

ELEY shooters continued to dominate across the different disciplines boosting their medal count. In the 50m Pistol Mixed Team final, Russian shooters Margarita Lomova and Mikhail Isakov won gold. The Ukrainian teams of Oksana Kovalchuk/Pavlo Korostylov and Olena Kostevych/Oleh Omelchuk took silver and bronze.

The following day, Jeanette Hegg-Duestad and Simon Claussen lead throughout the 50m Rifle Prone Mixed Team final to win the gold medal. Polina Khorosheva/Kirill Grigorian and Seonaid McIntosh/Ken Parr clinched silver and bronze, in another great result for team ELEY shooters.

Following her early success, GB’s Seonaid McInotsh continues to set her shooting season alight. After her bronze medal win, she went on to equal the 300m rifle prone women’s world record.

The 23 year-old’s score of 599-27x beat Germany’s Eva Roesken and Sweden’s Linda Olofsson. This adds to her fantastic 2019 record where she’s already bagged a silver world cup medal in Munich and silver and gold medals at the Rio World Cup. No wonder she is currently ranked the number one female rifle shooter in the world!

Another leading rifle ace, Nina Christen, put up a fierce fight for the Women’s 3P European Champion title for Switzerland after an incredible final. It was an all ELEY shoot-off between the final three with Maria Martynova (BLR) and Jenny Stene (NOR) collecting silver and bronze respectively.

Congrats to all our ELEY winners and sponsored shooters.