Local athlete Logan King had an excellent showing at the 2019 Alberta Trapshooting Championships at the Calgary Firearms Centre from July 18-21.
Sixty-two shooters competed in the doubles event. In doubles, the shooters must break two targets launched from the trap house simultaneously. One clay pigeon flies to the left while the other flies to the right. The target path remains constant, but the challenge is if the shooter can hit both targets before they hit the ground.
Each target is scored individually, not as a pair. Logan scored 97 out of 100 putting him in a three-way tie for first.
Sam McNeil from Alberta won the provincial championship, leaving the two Saskatchewan shooters, Logan and Kahl Boll, to shoot off to declare the Alberta Provincial Doubles Handicap Championship in the champion open division.
King was declared the Alberta A doubles open champion.
Seventy-three shooters shot in the championship handicap event and King scored a 96 out of 100 to tie with Nick Tebb of Alberta. Tebb earned the Alberta Provincial Handicap Championship and King won the Alberta Handicap Championship open, which earned him another yard. Handicap yardage is earned based on raw scores and placement in earlier events.
King and Tebb were in a shootoff for a chance to win a $1,800 gold coin.
In the first shoot off round of 25 targets, they both shot a 24, making them shoot again to break the tie. In the second round, Tebb shot a 23 and King scored a 22.
Seventy-eight shooters competed in the championship singles event. King scored a 191 out of 200. Brad Johnson of Alberta won the event with a score of 198.
King capped the weekend winning the high all-round A championship and the junior gold high all-around champion (age 18-23) with a score of 384 out of 400.
King also earned a spot on the 2019 Saskatchewan all-star team with an average score of 93.64 in all three events (singles, doubles and handicap). He has been competing since 2014 and has shot 8,400 lifetime registered singles targets, 5,750 handicap targets and 5,800 doubles targets.
Trapshooting is a game of movement, action and split-second timing. It requires the accuracy and skill to repeatedly aim, fire and break the 4 1/4 -inch discs which are hurled through the air at a speed of nearly 70 kilometres per hour, simulating the flight path of a bird fleeing a hunter.
