THERE aren’t many challenges left for 15-year-old shooter Mark Du-Rose.
After conquering every competition he could find in the sporting shooting competition, he has refocused himself on ISSF Olympic skeet shooting.
His dad Adam, also a champion shooter, said his son had already been invited to overseas competitions, barely a month and a half after he took up the discipline.
“All this stuff happened at the first shoot,” he said.
Mark recently won the junior Victorian state titles, and made it to the qualifying shoot-offs for the overall title, coming sixth.
Recently, he scored the highest amount of points at Sydney’s ISSF Grand Prix, winning the juniors and coming fourth overall.
“I’m the youngest person to shoot 75 out of 75 in sporting (shooting), I think only four people in Australia have done it, though dad’s done it twice,” Mark said.
By swapping to the international skeet discipline, Mark has begun to take aim at the Olympics, and is considering several shoots to qualify for the Commonwealth Games team.
However, an issue is Mark not being an Australian citizen the Du-Rose family moved from England only a couple of years ago, but has already found a welcoming shooting community.
“Shooting ISSF skeet, it’s opened doors for him and everyone’s falling over backwards to help him,” Adam said.
“Gippsland Sports Academy, that is definitely a good organisation, they’re trying to get juniors into the sport where you can go somewhere.”
Mark agreed, and said he enjoyed training at Bairnsdale with coach Lauryn Mark and Olympian Aislin Jones, though his dad was still his biggest influence.
“The most enjoyable part is going to the club and meeting new people, having fun on the ground – it’s not all about winning, but that’s what everyone is there for, you have that rivalry with your mates,” he said.
“The people that really helped me on the way, Aislin and Lauryn Mark, and Dad every time I beat Dad I’ve beat 97 per cent of the field.
“Dad’s the best coach I’ve ever seen, he’s got me to where I am.
“No one’s got the exact same technique that me and my dad have got because we learnt in England, he’s been taught the ‘proper’ ways, and I was coached by him.”
In a letter to potential sponsors, coach Lauryn Mark said Mark had natural talent.
“His sportsmanship and determination make him the ideal candidate to progress quickly in this sport,” she wrote.
“At the first Gippsland Sports Academy event, I realised that Mark was wasting valuable time in shooting the domestic events, so we have fast tracked him to the international discipline with his goal to win the Olympic Games.”
