Vella shows no jitters to win air-rifle event

The Malta Air-Rifle and Pistol Shooting Club organised their 11th airgun competition of the season at the MSSF indoor range in Bidnija, last weekend.

This was perhaps one of the most hotly-contested ‘mixed’ competitions in both air-rifle and air-pistol in the club’s 15-year history.

In air-rifle, Alison Vella brushed aside any jitters on her debut and finished joint first with Michael Xuereb in the qualification round, both having scored 529 points.

Romeo Zuber was close behind with 526 points.

In the 10 shots that followed to determine a winner, Vella again showed no nerves for a remarkable 97 to emerged winner with a total of 626.0 points.

Zuber improved to second place with 92.8 points for a total of 618.8 as Xuereb slipped to third on 618.2 points (529 + 89.2).

The air-pistol shoot was no less exciting where Ray Cacciattolo had a hard time to stave off the strong opposition from Stephen Vassallo at the top of the leaderboard.

Only one point separated the two shooters after the qualification round, having obtained 538 and 537 points respectively.

Vassallo hit a score of 93.3 points in the final but his effort was not enough to overtake Cacciattolo’s 93.9 with the latter securing first place with just a 1.6-point margin.

Third place went to Martin Grech (567.9). He was followed by Alfred Cini (555.4) and Josette Calleja Galea (548.4 points).

The next selection shoot will be held on March 10.