Masham-based Ritchey Tagg's UK sales manager John Robinson has been selected to represent Great Britain in Olympic Skeet (clay pigeon) Shooting at the World Championships to be held in Cairo, Egypt from May 3-9.
An amateur with a hectic full time job in the agricultural supply industry (who also manages the family 100-acre holding and pedigree Red Devon cattle herd in Devon), he is Great Britain's number one Olympic Skeet Shooting champion, a demanding event which requires intense concentration as well as accuracy and consistency, and narrowly missed out on a place at the Olympics last year - ranked number one just too late for a place.
Richardson's attendance at training and events is made possible by sponsorship from Masham-based livestock care and management specialist Ritchey Tagg.
He will also represent Britain at the World Cup in Cyprus in April this year and hopes to be picked for the World Cup being held in Italy this June.
He competed last year at both an individual level and as a member of the successful England and Great Britain teams at both the Home and Nordic Internationals.
His recent successes culminated in being ranked number one in Great Britain by winning the gold medal for his individual shooting at the British Grand Prix (the event in the shooting calendar, where he hit 193 out of 200 clays) and gold and silver medals at the recent European Commonwealth Games.
Capped 19 times for England, twice for Great Britain and a member of the England clay shooting team since 1989, John's ambition now is to represent his country at the World Championships which will be held in Egypt in May.
Richardson said: "In the spirit of the Olympics, the amateur ethos is still very strong in these highly competitive events .
"My success is very much a team effort made possible by the efforts of my coach and the time Ritchey make available for me to train and shoot, along with the professional support from the full Ritchey team."
l This form of clay pigeon shooting, with the irregular time releases of the clay, was originally devised by the Americans to train aircraft gunners to hit moving targets more accurately
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