Irish Paralympic shooter, Phil Eaglesham, created history in Sydney on Thursday night as he clinched a first ever world championships medal for Ireland in para-shooting. Eaglesham, who competed for Ireland at the Paralympic Games in Rio 2016 has now secured a slot for Team Ireland at the Tokyo Paralympics Games next August.
Phil competes in the SH2 class for athletes with a more severe impairment in the upper limbs which necessitates them to use a ‘shooting stand.’ Phil’s medal winning performance came despite facing tricky conditions against a blustery wind. Phil achieved a score of 612.3 averaging 10.2 across his 60 shots. This is an amazing achievement considering he was shooting from a distance of 50m and aiming at a target that had a diameter of only 154.4 mm with the centre target being similar to that of a 10c coin.
Phil competed alongside fellow Irish athlete Sean Baldwin and was accompanied by coach Ray Kane and Julie Eaglesham (Loader/Team Support).
Speaking about Phil’s great success Siobhan Scarlett, Honoraray General Secretary of Target Shooting Ireland, said ‘This of course is an incredible achievement for Phil and we’re so proud of him and the support team that were there to help along this journey.’
