First medal in pistols to N.Z. man

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33445, 29 January 1974, Page 7

First medal in pistols to N.Z. man

Bruce McMillan should feel justifiably nroud at winning New Zealand’s first pistol-shooting medal in international competition yesterday. He took the Games bronze in the; rapid-fire event. Competing against much ■ more experienced international competitors, the Hutt Valley company director was only two points under his New Zealand record of 583. Pistol shooting is a relatively new sport in New Zealand. The first national rapid-fire championship was in 1-970. McMillan won tha( title and has retained it since. His entry into international competition could not! have been more trying—! the 1972 Munich Olympics. But he rose splendidly to the occasion, shot 582, and although; placed twenty-eighth, it I was the third best score! by a Commonwealth; marksman. Yesterday, McMillan had the misfortune to score 50,! the possible, with his first round of sighters, and then drop two points with his counting shots. He recovered reasonably well to be fourth at the completion of 300 shots. Once again he scored a 50 with his sighters in the 1 second round, but failed! to repeat the effort when I they counted. “The psy-

chology of getting 50s with your sighters is bad. I trv to shoot well, but don't want them all to go in — it’s a crazy game,” he said. But with 550 shots gone McMillan was in second i place after a tremendous string of shots during which he only dropped four points in 250 in 1 spite of the upsetting experience of having his gun jam. He lost a silver medal in the final string of 10 when he faltered with 45. “The pressure was tremendous. I had a bit of a time hitch, that made me very nervous, and I had to hurry my shots.

“One mistake in rapid-fire pistol is a bitter pill; it can cost you 10 points,” he said. (McMillan, in fact, failed to fire at two; targets before they vanished in the final practice; match.) Now McMillan is planning for. the world championships in Switzerland next October, and he has his sights on the 1976 Olympics. “It is a matter of buying as much experience as I can afford,” he said. John Howat, the second New Zealand entry, was not disgraced. His total of 562 was his best score in major competition. “I hoped to learn a lot and I think I did,” he said.