Collings seals second belt victory

Press, 12 January 1987, Page 21

Collings seals second belt victory

PA Wellington Diane Collings shot her way to her second Ballinger Belt win at Trentham on Saturday. Collings took the belt with consistent shooting over the final 15-shot round, the Queen’s final, after leading the Queen’s 50 by one shot when the day began. To win her second Ballinger Belt Collings had to outshoot more than 300 expert shooters from Australia, New Zealand and the United States, over 115 shots at distances ranging from 300 to 900 yards in varying wind conditions. Collings said, “To win you have got to get the right wind and weather; I think I missed out on the worst of those and you have to be bn form.” The champion, aged 27, said she had not felt she had been in peak form when she set out from. Te Puke. “I haven't been shooting well. I still don’t feel like I’m shooting well,” she said. Collings’ belief that fate was on her side must have been confirmed when the swirling wind which had affected shooting all week turned into an easily readable side wind for the final shoot, held over 900 yards. The Te Puke Rifle Club did not have a 900-yard range and she said she was less confident at that distance than closer in. Collings waited, read the wind, then began firing. If she was nervous it did not show on her scoreboard. As her closest rivals either side dropped shots early Collings missed a possible just once in her first ten pulls of the

trigger. She had started the day with a one-point lead over the Army’s Andre Doyle. After she had unleashed her 15 bullets, Collings had done enough to win the belt by two points from the Australian, Ros Rowlands. Rowlands improved from sixth on the final shoot, past Doyle, Paul Rispin (Onslow), John Dodson (Kaituna-Blen-heim) and Karori’s Brian Thom with his 72.6 tally, yet his final round was just one central better than Collings recorded. When the points were tallied Collings was on top with 556.47. Next were Rowlands, on 554.51; Rispin on 554.48; Doyle on 553.55, and Dodson on 552.55. There may have been some sympathy for Rowlands, who finished in the top three for the fifth time without having been able to win. Collings became the first woman to win six years ago, and was chaired from the range by her Te Puke clubmates to the accompaniment of a pipe band. The most nervous the barefooted shooter looked all day was when she was placed in the victor’s chair, then lifted to shoulder level. Collings will be back next year to defend the belt. Noone has won the belt consecutively in 120 years and she was reluctant to make predictions. "You come back the next year and the shooters are looking at you to win but I come down looking for the Queen’s 50. If you are shooting well then you can start thinking about winning.”