Sport
1 July, 2021
Shooting for the stars
DESPITE competing against people more than double her age, Atherton’s Grace Grandcourt has punched well above her weight coming first and second in two separate shooting divisions.
DESPITE competing against people more than double her age, Atherton’s Grace Grandcourt has punched well above her weight coming first and second in two separate shooting divisions.
The 14-year-old competed at the recent 2021 IPSC Australian National Handgun Championships, first competing in her own age division before moving up competing against adults.
The International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) is the world’s largest growing shooting sport and takes a very practical approach to shooting.
Competitors are given a unique course to run through where they shoot multiple targets, moving and unmoving in between obstacles keeping the shooters challenged.
Grace only started shooting three years ago at the Atherton Pistol Club and has taken to it like a ‘duck to water’ according to her mother Rachel Grandcourt.
“She just fell in love with the sport like a lot of people do,” she said.
“It was a hard-earned win, she did a huge amount of practice most night, weekends, she really dedicated herself to it.”
Grace initially participated in the Super Junior (under 16s) category where she won first, from there she participated in the C grade production category which contained 34 adult shooters where she won second.
She was very pleased with her results feeling like the tireless hours of training had paid off.
“It felt wonderful to win, I had worked very hard to was very happy when I won,” Grace said.
“There was some pretty tough competition so I was not always confident on the outcome of the competition.
“I had a lot of support from my Dad (Stewart), my mentor Dom and the other competitors, especially from the Atherton and Mareeba Pistol club.”
