Local shooter Nathan Holden has been selected for Great Britain’s Talent Programme.

Earlier this year British Shooting, the governing body for Olympic and Commonwealth target shooting in Britain, launched an initiative called Project Pistol.

This programme is aimed at identifying individuals with potential to develop into world class shooters and be an inspiration to future generations of shooters.

In August, nearly 100 shooters were invited to assessment days in Newcastle and Surrey following a whittling down from more than 200 original registrations of interest.

The initiative saw shooters from as far afield as northern Scotland, the Isle of Man, Cornwall and the Isle of Wight come together to be assessed by a panel consisting of highly-experienced and qualified coaches.

The assessment team were looking at a variety of areas including technical ability, performance skills, coached sessions as well as motivations, lifestyles and future ambitions.

Local target shooter Nathan Holden was one of those who, after attending the assessment day, made the grade and has been selected for the Talent Programme.

The programme will involve quarterly performance training weekends with the British Shooting coaching team and twice yearly international training camps with a high-performance international coach.

Participants will also receive regular performance profiling, monitoring and training plan support.

Dean Leak, Talent Programme manager, commented: ’The competition for places was extremely high and demonstrated the enthusiasm and passion for athletes wishing to progress in ISSF Pistol shooting.

’This is the start of something really exciting for the pistol community and we are committed to providing athletes with high-level learning environments to enable them to progress into world class shooters, capable of Olympic success.’

Nathan Holden commented: ’I am proud and delighted to be selected for British Shooting’s Pistol Talent Programme.

’ I will be travelling to the UK on a regular basis to participate in training weekends and I am looking forward to pushing myself, taking my training programme to the next level and gaining the rewards that come from hard work and effort.

’This is an incredible opportunity and I’ll be putting my heart and soul into it. I hope to also be able to pass the skills and training techniques I learn onto the next generation of Manx shooters.’

Nathan would be grateful for sponsorship to aid with travel costs for this initiative. If you would like to explore such an opportunity Nathan can be contacted at [email protected]