Jess Liddon took part in five individual and team events for Great Britain at Cairo, Egypt, last month.
She is Scotland’s and Great Britain’s number one pistol shooter and retained the top rank for the last five years, and she continued to impress on the world stage.
Jess said: “The event was incredible. Competing alongside the world’s greats in what can only be described as one of the world’s most impressive range complexes was inspiring.
“A thank you has to go to the whole British team – athletes and staff: the environment in Egypt was challenging, different foods, cultures and climate to name a few, but the support of my team made managing all of that so much easier and allowed me to focus my energy on my performances.
“The event was littered with season’s bests, British records and valuable learning points for me.
“The event was a promising start to the Paris 2024 qualifying period and filled me with a drive to work even harder with the knowledge of what is within my reach.”
In the 10m Air Pistol Individual event, Jess enjoyed a season’s best, and finished in 48th place.
She said: “I came off my match feeling positive, areas of my match went really well and I gained a great deal of confidence in my abilities and the processes I was working on. I know that when I next step on to the line, I know how to perform even better.”
However, Jess admits her 25m Standard Pistol Individual performance didn’t go to plan.
She said: “Unfortunately this event did not pan out as I had anticipated or hoped it would. Whilst the result and performance are not what I know I am capable of, and therefore I do feel a large amount of disappointment, I learnt a lot of valuable lessons which is a positive to take away.”
She also was a whisker away from qualifying to the final of the 25m Women’s Sport Pistol.
Jess explained: “This event is made of two halves, precision and rapid. Day one, saw me compete in the precision stage which was one of my best performances to date. A score of 292 put me in eighth place after day one, a qualifying position for the final.
“I know my capabilities and therefore I was not surprised at my own result, however where that put me on the world stage was a feeling I had not experienced.
“It is challenging, and a huge part of the overall performance to be able to take the performance from day one and put that aside until the whole event is completed.
“Day two for me was not as successful, I worked hard under the pressure I felt carrying forward my result from the day before, and did enough to finish on an equal season’s best.
“Unfortunately, this dropped me down into 47th place – yet still only nine points away from that final qualifying position showing just how tightly contested the event was.
“I am proud of my work and after some more time on the training range over winter, I’m excited to see what I can do next year.”
Jess, alongside James Miller, finished in 16th place in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event, only four points away from qualifying for a medal match.
She added: “We broke our own British record by a huge eight points. I was incredibly proud of my own performance, scoring the fifth highest score of all females in the competition.”
In the 25m Standard Pistol Mixed Team, Jess and her team were just six points away from qualifying for stage two.
After a terrific showing on the world stage, Jess’ coach Sonal Gyorik-Ramendra has hailed the athlete for an “extraordinary” year.
Sonal said: “There were many international competitions from minor to majors such as Europeans and World Championship.
“The preparation was intense which involved trainings at odd hours, shooting at different ranges internationally with the purpose of coming out of the comfort zone and normalising the feeling of a competition environment.
“If you observe the graph of her performance, it peaked at the most important time at World Championships – not just technically but mentally as well.
“There were disappointments in the preparation matches, which I strongly believe was a learning process.
“It is a team work – from British Shooting, to Sport Scotland, her work arrangements, and having a strong family support – which is her backbone.
“The results started to reflect in her training because of re-settlement in her home town of Lockerbie and having a shooting range next door to put some extra hours in training.
“Going forward, the World Championship is a realisation of potential, confirmation of good work and elimination of doubts to some extent.
“At the end of the day, it’s hard to be an athlete and even harder when the world is watching – but not impossible to deal with.”
