We are very proud to be sponsoring the talented young Olympic hopeful, Amy Brown. At just 19 years old, Amy has already achieved impressive results in the world of skeet shooting, and her personal best scores are rocketing.
After being scouted by an APSI (Association of Professional Shooting Instructors) coach in the summer of 2015, Amy was successful at the Target Tokyo trials and, later that year, competed in the British Championships, taking second place in the Junior Ladies’ category.
This year, representing England, Amy took first place in the Junior category at the Captain’s Cup against Scotland, achieving two personal bests. In awful weather conditions at Bisley Shooting Ground, in Surrey, Amy shot for Team GB, taking third in Juniors and 11th overall. She also beat her competition personal best by six clays.
Later in the summer, Amy competed at the International Grand Prix in Holland, her first international competition, where she achieved ‘high gun’ position on both days and won team Gold. This success was closely followed by another international competition in Serbia.
In the summer of 2015, Amy passed ‘A’ levels in Maths, Further Maths, Physics, and Chemistry, and then took a gap year so that she could dedicate her time and effort to Olympic Skeet. Now, studying Law in her first year at Northumbria University in Newcastle, Amy is juggling her two worlds of shooting and academia; but this doesn’t seem to faze her. When Amy attends shooting events, tutors are sympathetic to her need for time out from her studies; and on her return, Amy just buckles down to work in order to catch up.
As well as shooting in competitions, Amy trains regularly, dividing her time between Bywell Shooting Ground in Northumberland, Beverley Clay Target Centre in East Yorkshire, and Auchterhouse Shooting Ground in Dundee, Scotland, where she receives instruction from her coach, Iain McGregor. She also works out at the university gym several times a week to maintain her stamina and upper body strength.
International competitions take Amy out of her comfort zone. In the late summer of this year, she flew to Málaga, where, doused in sun-screen, she sweated her way through the Junior Grand Prix in uncomfortably high temperatures. It wasn’t just the heat, however, that tested Amy’s resilience.
“I found it quite nerve-racking, competing against strangers. There were a few other British competitors, and I knew most of them, but there were so many people I’d never met before, and shooting in front of them made me nervous!”
However, Amy is a very determined young woman. I was surprised by the fact that she had booked her own plane ticket, accommodation, and car hire – daunting tasks for a 19-year-old. Amy is focused on success. She rises to every challenge that faces her and takes everything in her stride.
And how did Amy get on in Málaga? She won Gold in the Junior Ladies event.
You can follow Amy on Twitter, here.
