British female duo hitting the bull’s eye with ease

May 03, 2013 Sports

– encouraging more women to join the ranks

The fact that they are women does not by any stretch of the imagination mean that they are at any disadvantage coming against their male counterparts on the rifle ranges, they compete even and straight with the men folk and in many instances, beat them.
Kaieteur Sport took the opportunity to chat with the British duo of Deborah Fenn and Chloe Evans who are part of the Great Britain Rifle Shooing team that is on a Caribbean tour leading up to the Caribbean Championships and Australia versus the World match, both set to take place in Barbados, later this month.

Deborah Fenn (left) and Chloe Evans

For the records, Fenn placed 5th overall in the Individual Championships between Guyana and the British which concluded yesterday at the Timehri Rifle Ranges with Evans occupying the 8th place.
Fenn is a 17-year veteran in the sport and has represented her country for 11 years now while Evans, who has represented Wales before is on her first Great Britain tour.
Fenn noted that this is her first visit to the Caribbean and it has presented lots of new challenges apart from the conditions for her.
“The Guyana range is a lot sandier that’s what you is immediately notice and for me the wind conditions have been a bit easier than Jamaica but both countries I think have a strong friendly shooting team and so far we’ve thoroughly enjoyed the competition against them”.
The British team will take on Guyana in a team competition today before leaving for the Twin Island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday where they will take on the Trinis. Fenn said she is looking forward to the Trinidad leg of the Caribbean tour and is hoping that she can take the experiences from both Jamaica and Guyana to Trinidad.
“What I mean by that is how quickly you learn new conditions can really help you overall and if I can pick up new conditions in Trinidad having learn it in Guyana and Jamaica that will be very pleasing for me”.
Fenn who was a Taekwondo champion at age 15 believes that rifle shooting is an exciting sport and it gives women the opportunity to compete equally with the male counterparts.
“One of the wonderful things about rifle shooting is that you can excel at the sport whether you are 15 or 16 years-old and at Bisley in the UK we have shooters who are into their 80s who are still very competent and I think it’s very exciting to compete equally whether you are male, female, old young; even some people with disability can compete equally alongside able bodied shooters and I think that’s a brilliant thing about the sport”.
Chloe Evans, while not as experienced as Fenn has been in the sport for the past five years even though she came out of school last year.
She has been her school captain for some time said that she is on a big learning curve being around persons who have been very seasoned campaigners with as much as over 30-years experience in some instances.
“It’s been a very big learning curve for me but I am very grateful for the advice and support I’ve been getting from my teammates. I’ve represented Wales before but this is my first Great Britain cap”.
Commenting on the conditions, Evans said that Jamaica was a lot hotter and in Guyana it is a lot more humid along with different wind conditions.
She noted that she will be in the sport for many more years to come and is encouraging females to take up the challenge and join the Rifle shooting ranks.
Evans shared some of her views on why she would remain in the sport: “I think the social side of the sport is encouraging. Everyone is so friendly; I find especially coming out here everyone is very hospitable, everyone gets on and it’s really nice. It doesn’t matter what sex or age you are you can be just the same ability as the male, it really doesn’t matter just because you are a female, you can do it and I encourage you females to start”.