Former IAPS school pupil Bethany Norton has shot to the top of her chosen sport - literally
A former pupil at a member prep school in Hertfordshire has shot to the top of her chosen sport - literally - after taking her first tentative steps in an IAPS competition five years ago.
Bethany Norton entered the IAPS clay pigeon shooting competition in 2018 after Duncombe School agreed she could do so to demonstrate there are alternatives to mainstream sport available and to encourage her fellow pupils.
Despite having only picked up a gun for the first time a few weeks before Bethany surprised everyone, including herself, by winning the U11’s female high gun category.
Being given access to competition gave her the encouragement and confidence she needed to continue with the sport and, only a year later, she competed in the national U21 Schools Challenge.
Not only did her performances during the year see her qualify for the Grand Final, she went on to claim the title – winning an MG car in the process at the tender age of 13!
Bethany’s achievements did not go unnoticed and she joined British Shooting’s Development Academy to learn Olympic Skeet, before being promoted to their Talent Academy and, last year being chosen to represent them three times internationally.
Still only 15, she was part of the Olympic Skeet Women’s Junior Team which took gold at the Junior World Championships in Germany, competed in the European Championships in Cyprus and then the World Championships in Croatia, reaching her first International ISSF final and finishing eighth overall.
Bethany is the reigning British Junior Ladies Olympic Skeet champion and claimed junior ladies gold in high gun at the British Shooting Pathway Championships. Her considerable achievements have recently seen her named the CPSA Young Shot of the Year.
Bethany’s mum Karen contacted IAPS to relate her amazing story and firmly believes that, without the opportunity afforded her in her first IAPS clay pigeon shooting competition, she may never have reached the top of her sport.
Everyone at IAPS will be watching keenly as Bethany targets more amazing achievements in her sport in future years.