The world medal-winning team of Michael Whapples and assistant Pauline Thornton EMN-191023-091309002

The Holwell Rifle Club marksman admitted the occasion of his world championship debut had affected him when finishing eighth in the opening prone discipline.

But he showed great resilience and character to bounce back and win bronze in the standing competition just two days later.

“I think nerves got me in both of the finals because it was my first world championships,” he said.

“I was extremely pleased to come back with a medal and in a way relieved it was all over – it was a lot of hard work.”

In international competition, after a qualifying round, shooters are given less time to line up their shots in the final.

Each competitor takes two sets of five shots before the elimination process begins, with the lowest scorer knocked out after every subsequent two shots.

“My last shot in prone qualifying was in the 10, but we used a different range for the final and what I thought was a good first shot turned out to be a three.”

“If you have a bad start, potentially you can’t get it back and that is part of the pressure.

“I got a bit flustered at that point and never really settled.”

Having gone into the final ranked seventh after qualifying, Whapples was knocked out early in eighth place.

“It did bother me that night and played on my mind that I might not come away with any medals,” he added.

“But then you just have to remember that it’s a new competition and you can start again.”

Faced with such nagging doubts, he was able to fall back on an impressive CV as he focussed his attentions on his second and final shot at a medal in the standing discipline.

Whapples, who lost his sight completely in 2006 having been born with a rare eye condition, has lost count of the British titles he has won.

The 34-year-old became so dominant in his visually impaired class he chose to compete against sighted shooters in a bid to improve his accuracy for the international stage, a tactic which helped him to win World Cup silver last year.

Visually impaired shooters are initially helped to line up their shots by assistants, but then rely on an audio sighting mechanism.

This reaches a higher pitch the closer the rifle is aimed towards the centre of a target face, which measures just four-and-a-half centimetres across.

In Sydney he had the support of his assistant Pauline Thornton, a Holwell clubmate and a shooter of international pedigree.

But still he struggled to settle.

“In the standing final I had nerves again and some people said they could see my hand shaking when I was loading,” Whapples admitted.

“I went into the final in eighth place, and once the first person went out I thought ‘at least I’m going to finish in a better place than I started’, and that helped me relax.

“When it got to three remaining I knew I was guaranteed a medal, but second place was just that bit too far.

“It was just one very bad shot which potentially cost me the silver.”

The Melton marksman demands high standards of himself and is already making plans to avoid any further disappointment.

“Going out to Australia we were hoping for two medals, but next time hopefully we will be prepared to cope with such a situation,” he added.