An engineer from concrete production process improvement specialist ConSpare helped the Great Britain Under-25 Rifle Team to a silver medal at the ICFRA World Long Range Shooting Championships recently.
Tom Bullock, a Continuous Improvement Engineer at the Nottinghamshire-based firm, was part of the 12-strong squad which finished second to Australia at the tournament, which took place at Trentham Range, near Wellington, in February.
He has been shooting competitively for around ten years and was part of the Great Britain Under-21 team that competed in America in 2015, and the Great Britain Under-19 side that went to South Africa in 2013.
ConSpare provided sponsorship to enable Tom to join-up with the rest of the team in New Zealand for the month-long tour, which also included a training camp and competing in the individual heats at the world’s most prestigious rifle shooting tournament.
He’d spent the past 12 months with the squad preparing for the event, which included ten days of competitions last summer to get them ready for the championships.
During the trip, Tom was able to spend time with ConSpare supplier BFM Global Ltd, based in Auckland, which manufactures a revolutionary range of snap-in, flexible connectors and spigots that eliminate problems associated with traditional industrial connectors.
The International Confederation of Full-bore Rifle Associations (ICFRA) World Championships have taken place since 1992, while the main Palma Match, contested by the best shooters from the 14 nations that make up the ICFRA, dates to 1876.
Tom is currently ranked 17th in the world at Under-25 level, and now has his sights set on progressing into the Great Britain Senior Team.
He said: “It was an honour to represent the Great Britain team again at the World Championships and I am extremely grateful to ConSpare for helping to make it happen and get me out there to compete.
“Credit to the Australians, they shot consistently well throughout the meeting and had put the time in on training on Trentham range in the years leading up to the match. We did extremely well at the tournament though and were focused, confident and thoroughly deserved our silver medal.
“It was also great to be able to visit our key partner, BFM, while I was out there to see their latest innovations and how we can utilise them in the UK to help concrete producers here to make it better.”
Tom’s father and ConSpare Managing Director James Bullock, who has also represented the Great Britain Team, said: “The whole team at ConSpare is really proud of what Tom has achieved with his shooting career, which is why we were delighted to lend our support to help make it possible for him to compete in New Zealand.”
