Dave Tarrant happy with world record

Press, 12 December 1979, Page 48

Dave Tarrant happy with world record

By

TIM DUNBAR

Dave Tarrant was understandably rapt yesterday when he returned to Christchurch from the Australian national paraplegic games in Perth with a gold medal — and a world record. Tarrant, aged 43, broke the world air pistol record for paraplegics with a score of 363 out of a possible 400. It was a magnificent effort, especially considering the short length of time that Tarrant has had in air weaponary. *Tve only been in it a year. Everything just seemed to fail into place.” said the bearded Christchurch man. Tarrant said he had scored “a little bit more” than the 363 in practice but expected to get less in competition with all its stresses. “A great deal of concentration is needed for those 40 shots with the bullseye about the size of a 1c coin.” he said. The previous world record of 353 was held by an Englishman. Tarrant hopes to beat his new mark when he competes in the Paraplegic Olympics at Arnhem in June. He is hopeful of getting an Olympic medal, though he says the competition will be harder and the other shooters will have seen his results by then. While there were plenty of congratulations for Tarrant at Christchurch Airport yesterday there was sympathy for another team member. Jim Doak came back with a much deserved silver medal, but also the

memory that he had held the world air pistol record for 10 minutes — before his fellow Christchurch team member had stolen it from him. Both Doak and Tarrant were awarded special plaques for achievement in sport. Altogether the New Zealand invitation team of 17 won 45 medals, including 17 golds. Twenty Australian records and eight world records were broken at the championships, according to the team’s publicity officer, Mrs Alexia Pickering. Tarrant was the only member of the national team to break a world record though two former New Zealanders, Brian McNichol (now living in Melbourne) and Judy Langhorn (South Australia), did so. McNichol, formerly of Christchurch, broke the paraplegic world light heavy-weight weightlifting record with a lift of 150 kg.

The third Christchurch member of the team was Graham Tapper, who also had a successful time at the championships. Tapper won four bronze medals in the air rifle shooting events.