Cowra’s Kim Nealon has been coming to Wagga for 24 years for the national trap championships, but 2018 will be bigger than them all, given the chance to also represent his country at the World Down The Line Championships.
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Nealon and wife Therese are well set up in their 24-foot caravan at the Australian Clay Target Association’s national ground, which is a hive of activity ahead of the two big events.
“It’s very exciting. This is probably the best ground in the world to shoot Down The Line, for the Commonwealth countries,” Nealon said.
Nealon will be on the Australian veterans team when the world titles begin next Sunday. But before then, it’s eight days of shooting for a competitor who won the national high gun in 1998.
“That was the pinnacle of my shooting. But if you happened to win a world title, that’s another story,” he said.
Kim and Therese also have a family title to their name, having taken out the Deauville Doubles together.
Nealon said the single barrel and pointscore (double barrel, with maximum three points for hitting with the first shot, two for the second, or none for missing with both) are his favourite events.
He was inducted into the NSW Hall of Fame last year. Highlights also include a New Zealand title, and winning a handicap event at the ‘Grand American’, one of the world’s biggest events in the USA in 2013. where there are 100 layouts at the venue.
In more than two decades travelling to Wagga, he’s seen the sport change.
“Certainly a lot. The targets have got much easier – they’re not going as fast and they’re not going at as hard an angle. So the angles aren’t as difficult now,” he said.
“All the gun technology’s changing, cartridges, the lot, has all improved.
“I’ve just bought a new Krieghoff gun, which is a German brand, and it’s really improved my shooting a little bit more as well.”