Olympian elected to the Shooting Australia Board

Shooting Australia’s 2020 Annual General Meeting has elected 2008 Beijing Olympic Games trap competitor, Craig Henwood, to its Board of Directors.

Henwood, who is Vice President and a Life Member of Melbourne Gun Club, replaces retiring Director, Alan Smith.

Shooting Australia President, Ms Cath Fettell, congratulated Henwood on his appointment and paid tribute to Smith.

"Alan has given outstanding service to Shooting as a Rifle athlete at two Olympic Games and at three Commonwealth Games, where he won two gold medals and one silver medal, before being appointed to the Shooting Australia Board in 2012," said Ms Fettell.

"We welcome Craig and we look forward to his contribution as Shooting Australia continues on a journey of growth and transformation," added Ms Fettell.

Ms Fettell said Shooting Australia emerged from a challenging 12 months in a strong position.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has played havoc with domestic and international sport, but in the last financial year we managed to successfully stage the World Shooting Para Sport World Championships, the Oceania Shooting Federation Championships and the Olympic Games nomination events prior to any significant impacts from COVID-19," said Ms Fettell.

"This has allowed the Australian Olympic Committee to select the Shooting team for the Tokyo Olympics to be staged in July and August next year. This has given our athletes selection certainty and will help them best prepare for the Games. We have also achieved two quotas for the Tokyo Paralympics, with two further opportunities to chase ahead of this event scheduled for August - September 2021," she added.

Shooting Australia Chief Executive, Luke van Kempen, said the organisation finished in a strong position at the end of FY20 despite the challenges encountered from the global pandemic.

"We are well positioned to finish our business in Tokyo 2021 and launch a raft of new initiatives as we head towards Paris in 2024 and beyond," said Mr van Kempen.

"We are very grateful that Shooting Australia’s High Performance investment has been confirmed by the Australia Institute of Sport for FY21 and FY22 at a consistent level, plus additional Para Shooting funding.

"After a really positive Members Forum held over the weekend, Shooting Australia remains committed to working collaboratively with our Member Organisations to build on our success and enhance the sustainability of target shooting sports in Australia into the future," he added.

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