Paris Olympics on young Cobo United star’s radar
GUERNSEY’S latest island 10m air-rifle champion – and a notably young one at that – hopes to carry on his promising trajectory and maybe even reach the Olympics.
Young Euan Robert’s success hasn’t gone unnoticed so far, and it was one year and one month ago that he wowed the Great Britain Talent Squad selectors with a stunning second in the British Open Airgun junior final.
The Cobo United shooter, now 16, has since been making monthly trips to the mainland to benefit from some of the talent squad’s high-level coaching and training sessions.
Of course, these sessions are now on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.
But Robert, who still only has around three years in air rifle shooting, has a vastly promising progression to reflect on.
‘I enjoyed it from day one,’ said the youngster.
‘Once the scores started going up, the competition was a prize in itself.’
It was in his very first big competition that he truly stepped up and produced a vastly memorable performance.
Shooting at the British Open Airgun in February 2019, unfolding at the classy venue of Bisley, Robert had truly surpassed expectations by making the top four, top three and then a duel for the title.
He finished 1.2 points short of the junior champion despite ending with a maximum-scoring shot of 10.9.
‘I went out with a bang,’ said Robert with a chuckle.
‘Quite happy – there’s room for improvement.’
Coach and mentor Paul Guillou, who had accompanied him for the trip, added: ‘There was no expectation, and when you’ve got no expectation, that frees you up to do well.’
Robert was also delighted to make three different finals at the Welsh Open, once missing a medal by 0.2, as well as the Surrey Open final.
‘That’s an achievement, making every final. Personal bests have definitely been coming in recently so I’m happy to recently break through [the 600]… the top shooters are shooting above 600.0 and I hit bang-on 600.0 on one of the days at the Welsh Open.
‘Ever since, I’ve been climbing up slowly but surely, so I’m happy to keep putting in the progress.’
Domestically, he recently won the Island 10 Championships from another young talent in Amy Woodland, producing a record score.
That progress has no doubt been accelerated in recent months by his occasional big weekend with the talent squad.
And Robert is thoroughly enjoying it.
‘It’s a good experience for both me and Paul, because I’m very fortunate to be in the talent squad and that allows Paul to access the same coaching I access when I’m away, because he’s helped me up to that point.
‘It’s nice for one to go away and do these things, but [being from Guernsey] we do find it challenging every now and then to get away.’
In the absence of physical, on-the-range sessions with the squad, Robert is still benefiting from their high-level coaching via online contact.
In the background, he is cracking on with whatever training he can complete in these trying times.
Shooting remains a big time commitment and Guillou feels that 20 hours a week is a practical minimum if Robert is to satisfy his ultimate goal – to become an Olympian.
With Paris 2024 the ambitious aim, Robert has lined up a plan that will hopefully see him join the very best in the world.
‘Every competition leading up to that is, essentially, in a way, practice.
‘Short-term thinking, I’d like to do the Island Games, and things like Welsh Open – looking forward to that.
‘It would be nice to shoot over here [at Guernsey 2021], for sure. I’ll be proud to represent the island as I am true Guern.
‘Commonwealths, I’d love to do, and that’s out in India. That would be a different place to do it.’
Another major stepping stone would be to progress into the talent academy, where Jersey Olympic hopeful Cameron Pirouet finds himself currently, and where training becomes a true full-time pursuit.
Guillou added: ‘The Olympics for a lot of people is a dream but in order to achieve that, it requires a lot of hard work. What I’m trying to do with Euan is to manage the expectation about the amount of effort that is required to shoot at the Olympics.
‘What we are working on now is a programme of greater excellence than what we’ve achieved so far.
‘Where we’ve been satisfied with shooting 570s, 577, that, for the Olympics, will not cut it whatsoever. We now have to shoot with the expectation that every shot’s a 10 … then there’s a chance of qualifying.
‘You’ve got to expect to sacrifice a lot to achieve at that level.’
