Olympic and Commonwealth Games clay target gold medallist Suzy Balogh OAM hosted first-time shooters and Narrabri Clay Target Club members for a day on the local Narrabri range on Saturday.
The event was a ‘thanks to club sponsors’ day’, and for some it was the opportunity to experience the sport for the first time and enjoy lunch with the club members.
The club welcomed Ms Balogh, who is a gold medallist from the Athens Olympics in 2004 as well as the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. She was a competitor and finalist in other Olympics and Commonwealth Games as well, along with being a winner of many other titles.
The gold medallist has a long and successful career in competitive clay target shooting and is busy as a coach and mentor, speaking to schools, state and federal organisations.
She runs her own organisation called ‘Hitting Targets’, which works with clubs and individuals and also caters to corporate team-building through clay target fun sessions for social events.
Ms Balogh spent the day at Narrabri with the club’s sponsors, coaching them in the finer points of the sport, and she then joined club members into the evening.
She has attended shoots at many clubs across Australia and overseas and was complimentary about the Narrabri Clay Target Club facilities and range, noting that an aspiration could be to have an ‘Olympic’ style range developed one day at Narrabri.
“Shooters will travel a long way to come to a range of that configuration,” she said.
The gold medalist has connections to Narrabri as a former DPI officer working in the region, and in 2007 she was an Australia Day Ambassador to Narrabri Shire.
“Thanks to Member for Barwon Roy Butler’s office and Hutcheon Pearce for their support for this sponsors’ day,” Narrabri Clay Target Club secretary Anthony Gray.
