Last weekend in Ontario, Allan Harding defended his title as Canada’s best male 10-metre pistol shooter, and also took home gold in the 50-metre event at the Canadian National Pistol Championships.
This is the third consecutive year that the Gibsons-based Harding has won the Men’s 10-metre event. As for the Men’s 50-metre, he hadn’t competed in that category since the 2017 Nationals and the last time he won a title was in 2016.
“It feels pretty great to win a third year in a row. The finals portion of the event is something I excel at. There is a lot more noise, more pressure, no room for errors. Most of my training is to confidently make those shots in finals,” Harding told Coast Reporter while travelling back from Ontario.
Harding also competed in the Men’s 25-metre – a new category for him, to which he’s still getting accustomed. It requires shooting five targets in three timed sessions that last between eight and four seconds. “Five shots in four seconds is a challenge,” he said.
He also competed in the Mixed Team 10-metre event with his teammate, Kimberly Britton, who he competed with at the Munich World Cup in May. They qualified for the final round but were edged off the podium with a fourth place finish, due to early mistakes. Harding shot a personal best in the qualification portion, however.
Harding attributed his success to a change in training, including focusing on cardio to drop his resting heart rate, strengthening his shoulder muscles, and focusing on 10-metre shooting and leveraging that precision training into other events.
While Harding earned gold at the Nationals, he missed his goal of taking a spot at the Pan Am Games, held in Peru in early August. He earned a quota spot on Team Canada, trained with the team and at one point was named an alternate, but ultimately didn’t compete.
That leaves uncertainty about his chances to qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. “Unfortunately Canada only has a single quota spot in shooting at the moment in women’s pistol. Our best chance was in Lima at the Pan Ams to secure a spot, but the team just missed that,” he said.
A strong development team is waiting in the wings for the 2024 Olympics, however, and Harding expects Team Canada to secure at least one men’s pistol quota. The last time a men’s pistol shooter competed in the Olympics for Canada was in 1992.
In the meantime, Harding expects to continue training and performing in World Cup events into the new year.
He will also be involved in training youth in target sports on the Coast.
Sunshine Coast Target Sports will be offering lessons for junior members, ages 12 to 17, on Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m. at a cost of $40 a year. Children as young as seven are welcome if accompanied by parents. Volunteers are also welcome. Harding will be joining as a coach in the second half of September after some post-Nationals rest. Information is available on the Sunshine Coast Target Sports Facebook Page.
