Being able to represent your country in a major sports competition is a dream of many athletes. Competing to be the best is a common motivation for many that take up their chosen sport. It’s not always obvious how an athlete can get from picking up the sport into one day representing his or her nation, and it is what this “Get-IN” series is exactly about: To find out the steps one needs to take or standards required for selection into the National Team.
In keeping with the recent collaboration with Shotgun.SG, the first sport for this series is Shooting and specifically the shotgun shooting events of Trap and Skeet in Singapore.
The shotgun disciplines have produced multiple medalists in the Asian Games & SEA Games over the years, as well as having 3 different shooters representing Singapore in the Olympic games. National team members have the chance to qualify for and compete at the Major Games as well as World Cups and championships organised by the International Shooting Sport Federation.
Learners of trap and skeet shooting in Singapore likely have had the thought of competing for the nation on their minds. The selection of the national team is done by the Singapore Shooting Association (SSA) as part of their mission to “identify and develop potential talent for podium success at major games”. Training is also taken care of by the SSA when you are identified as “best and talented shooters”.
Credits: SSA Website, singaporeshooting.org
Score-based Sport
With shooting being a score based sport, there are clear targets to aim for, pun unintended, in order to get into the national team. Before talking about the scores & policy, the first criteria is that you have to be a Singaporean Citizen!
Based on the latest selection policy for shotgun published by SSA on their website, there are different qualifying scores for competitors of different age groups/gender.
Juniors below the age of 21 can qualify into the Junior Development team with scores of 40/75 and then advance into the Junior Team with 100/125 for Men and 50/75 for Women. There is no distinction made between the Skeet or Trap events at the Junior level. The next step up is the Development Team, where the maximum age is 30. To qualify, Men are required to register a score of 105/125 whereas Women need to meet 55/75. Being in the junior or development team provides access to support in training such as ammunition entitlements and likely support of national coaches.
For athletes over the age of 30, all is not lost. You can still qualify into the National Training Team as long as you meet the required scores of 118/125 for Men Skeet, 116/125 for Men Trap or 68/75 for Women Skeet and 66/75 for Women Trap.
Team Singapore representatives for each competition/major games would likely be the qualifiers with highest scores selected from this National Training Team.
Credits: SSA Website, singaporeshooting.org
Compared to Shooting Australia
Being curious of how strict the national team criteria is relative to other countries, we managed to find the published criteria of Shooting Australia. The latest selection policies published by Shooting Australia included the Benchmark Scores (BMS) for selection illustrated in the tables below:
All scores are based upon 125 and it does look like Singapore’s National Training Team Men standards are pegged similarly to the Junior Men’s standards of Shooting Australia
Trials/Selection Process
As the scores have to be recorded in official trial shoots or competitions, athletes that aspire to get into the national squad should be looking out and registering for SSA-endorsed shotgun trials and competitions.
Regional and international competitions have come to a halt with the Covid-19 pandemic, but athletes can always check with their respective clubs or SSA for the latest information.
Level of competition
As with any sport, to represent the nation, one has to be the best in his/her event in the country. This means the amount and level of competition (other athletes) play a part in determining if you will be chosen to wear the flag on your uniform.
For shotgun athletes that have a dream or eventual goal of representing your nation, we hope this edition of our “Get-IN” series can help to better plot your way ahead! All the very best and we hope to hear your story when you get to shoot for glory, representing your nation one day.
OhkaySport.asia – Editor’s notes: All assumptions of national team selection criteria are made based on published policies. No confirmation has been sought from SSA at time of writing. Article serves only as a guide for aspiring athletes.
Update: The selection criteria has been changed and updated as of April 2021. Please see the updated post.
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