sport, local-sport,

BENDIGO rifle shooter James Daly is targeting success on foreign soil. The 28-year-old has been selected in the Australian team to contest an International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup event in Munich in May. It will be the two-time Australian prone champion's first time competing at World Cup or international level. The May 17-24 competition will bring together 50 of the best rifle shooters from across the world. "I've been overseas before for things not to do with shooting, but this is my first shooting event overseas," Day said. "It's pretty exciting." A strong performance in Germany willo qualify him for further World Cup events, of which there are four held each year across the world. Daly, a software development team manager with Bendigo Community Telco, trains weekly on the Bendigo Pistol Club range in Wellsford and is currently ranked number two in Australia. He is the first Victorian shooter to represent Australia in rifle shooting at an international level event in more than decade. He has forged his reputation as one of the nation's best rifle shooters in the prone discipline. Prone requires the shooter to lie front down with a rifle positioned in the shoulder and attached to a sling. It is considered the most stable and therefore the most accurate shooting position. "We fire 50 shots in 60 minutes at a 50-metre target," he said. "You need to be very accurate as the target you need to hit is about one centimetre wide and you really need to hit that every single time to have any chance of getting into the final." Daly has a personal best was 58 out of 60 for a score of 597.049 (out of 600), the current Victorian record. Formerly from Kyneton, Daly was introduced to rifle shooting by his father in 2011. "He asked me one day if I wanted to go down tot he range to have a shoot, but I probably knew beforehand that I would probably want to do it as an actual sport," he said. "I like the accuracy and patience required to do something like this, it's different from football or ay other sport. "It's just you and your position and you have to make the most of it." In 2012, Daly contested his first state title shoot. A year later he shot his first A-grade score qualifying him for the national championships. Daly wasted little time in making an impression, winning the national prone championship at his first attempt. He followed up by winning the national championship in 2016, beating two-time Olympian and top-ranked Australian Dane Sampson. Coincidentally, Sampson also made his international debut at a World Cup event in Munich in 2011. The sharp-shooter credits a new rifle purchased at the start of last year as one of the chief reasons behind his improvement, leading to a national number two ranking. To suport Daly, visit https://www.gofundme.com/helpjamesgettomunich

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