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Allan Harding begins World Cup

Marksmanship
shooting
Gibsons marksman Allan Harding took this photo of himself training for the 2016 International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup Series. He said he was recording himself to watch his follow-through between shots.

Gibsons marksman Allan Harding heads to Bangkok, Thailand to begin his international competitive tour in three of the four stages of the 2016 International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Series beginning on March 1.

This year Harding said he would be focusing exclusively in the 50m division, as opposed to past years when he has competed in both the 10m and 50m.

“The 50m is the only one that I qualified for on the national team this year, so that’s the real reason I’m only doing that event,” Harding said jokingly. “But I also wanted to focus on just one. In the last couple years I’ve been doing both the 10m indoors and the 50m outdoors.”

Harding said he found it a little challenging to train with his focus on both events.

“I’ve got a specific score I’m trying to stay above, 540 – which, when I tell myself that, I’m like, yeah, I can do that,” Harding said. “But it’s also my personal best in that event, so I’m really trying to raise my performance quite a bit this year.”

Harding will be in Bangkok from March 1 to 7 then in Rio de Janeiro April 13 to 24. He returns to Canada to shoot in the Legacy venue at the Pan Am Games on April 29 and 30 in Toronto. He’ll finish his tour in Munich May 18 to 26, where he will compete in stage 3 of the four World Cups happening this year.

“[Rio] will basically be the test event for the Olympics in the summer, which I’m not going to,” Harding said. “Canada only secured two quota spots, but both are in the women’s shooting events – one in pistol and one in shotgun – so there are no men going this year.”

The last time a Canadian male pistol shooter went to the Olympics was in 1996, according to Harding. The Olympics have only about 30 to 40 quota spots per event open for competitive shooters, and with 145 countries in the ISSF, “not everyone gets to play,” Harding said.

“All sports at the Olympic level go through this – but, for instance, in hockey at the winter Olympics, Canada gets their qualification early on,” he said.

Harding leaves for Bangkok on Monday, Feb. 29.