Pic: ISSF-TV – ISSF World Cup Baku 2024 – Mixed Teams Bronze Medal Final (ISSF TV YouTube highlights)
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About Aislin…
Aislin is a quietly confident 24 year old Olympian from Gippsland in Victoria, Australia. She is a 7-time National Champion in ISSF Women’s Skeet in Australia, Oceania Region Champion for 2023 winning the Paris quota for AUS, Junior World Cup Gold medallist and past Junior World Record holder. In May she topped the Australian Paris Olympic selection rankings and will be nominated to the AOC for the Paris Olympic Team. At the ISSF World Cup in Baku in May ’24 Aislin & Josh Bell (Sydney) won their first World Cup medals together, beating Team USA 1 to take the bronze in Mixed Teams.
Aislin grew up in Lakes Entrance and completed her high school education at Nagle College in Bairnsdale. She currently lives in Leongatha with her partner, which is closer to coaching in Melbourne and the Victorian Institute of Sport. She does the majority of her training at Korumburra Gun Club but still regularly travels to Bairnsdale for coaching/training with her father Dave at Bairnsdale Field & Game or Bairnsdale Clay Target Club. Aislin is also completing a Bachelor of Commerce (Financial Planning) at Deakin University.
Aislin has been representing Australia at an international level in clay target shooting since 2015. At 16 years of age she became the youngest person in history to represent Australia in Olympic Shooting sports at the Rio Olympics. She was also the youngest shooting athlete in the world to compete at the Rio Olympics out of 390 shooting sports competitors. In 2018 was a finalist at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 at Brisbane during the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games after equalling the Commonwealth Games qualification record set by her coach, Lauryn Mark.
In January 2019 Aislin became the first woman in the history of clay target shooting in Australia to win an Overall Championship at the ACTA ISSF National Championships in Brisbane.
Where did it begin…
Aislin’s interest in clay target shooting came from following her father around simulated field shoots at Bairnsdale Field & Game at the age of 10. She obtained her junior firearm permit and a 20 gauge Yildiz as soon as she turned 12 and developed quickly into a very capable simulated field shooter. Club members and visitors were fascinated by the petite girl and her seemingly oversized shotgun, though there was no question amongst anyone who observed her shoot that there was a natural talent.
In late 2012 after watching the London Olympics, she commenced coaching with Australian Olympian, Lauryn Mark of Go Shooting. She continues her great friendship and coaching relationship with Lauryn and these days also lists her father Dave as her other personal coach.
Lauryn was excited to meet Aislin, another left hander, and Aislin was inspired by the Olympian to switch disciplines to shoot skeet rather than simulated field. The seeds of the idea of representing Australia were planted, and a friendship developed. They set out a plan to reach the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020. The plan was a success but ahead of schedule. Aislin became the youngest shooting athlete to ever shoot for Australia at Olympic level when she was selected for the Aussie Olympic Team to shoot in Rio in 2016.
Quickly outgrowing the 20 gauge, Aislin’s relationship with Beretta began with a new Beretta Silver Pigeon in October 2012 and the coaching and practice continued. She joined the ACTA affiliated Bairnsdale Clay Target Club in early 2013.
In addition to several Gippstar monthly awards, and the 2017 & 2018 GippStar Open Sportsperson of the Year, in 2015 & 2016 she was named East Gippsland Sports Foundation Athlete of the Year for her achievements in shooting.
At her first ISSF National Championship she won the silver medal. In January 2016 she became the youngest woman to win the Australian ISSF Womens Skeet National Championship at Brisbane Gun Club just 12 months after her national debut, title she’s now taken out 7 times (There was no event in 2021 due to COVID.)
In January 2016 she attained the #1 ranking in Australia (& the Oceania region,) based on her aggregate average performance. (source: Shooting Australia) She has retained that ranking to current day.
Aislin now loves shooting with a limited edition Beretta DT11 Gold in the Skeet variant. Over her career she has shot a Beretta 692 Skeet at the Rio Olympics and a DT11 Black Skeet after joining the Beretta factory team. Aislin shoots Nobel Sport Italia 24 gm Quattro Fluo Skeet & 24 gm Exclusiva Skeet ammunition.
Aislin is also still well supported by the club where it all began – Bairnsdale Field & Game, and trains both there and at Bairnsdale Clay Target Club as well as Korumburra Gun Club after moving to Leongatha in 2022. She is an associate member of Melbourne & Korumburra Gun Clubs.
A list of her achievements can be found elsewhere on the site.
When she’s not competing or training, Aislin is a quietly spoken but confident young woman, who doesn’t give much away about her shooting successes. She enjoys a wide range of sports recreationally and is dedicated to her study. She enjoys going for long runs on the rail trail in South Gippsland with her labrador Ted and is aiming to run the Paris 2024 Marathon Pour Tous in Paris after her events conclude in Chateauroux.
She is committed to her Olympic dream, and is destined for success.
What is Team Aislin?
Team Aislin is the group of family, friends and businesses who support Aislin on her quest to represent Australia in ISSF Women’s Skeet. The support from Team Aislin is a key to her success, and Aislin is genuinely grateful to have the group of friends & family, businesses and sponsors who are supporting her to achieve her Olympic dream.
What is ISSF Skeet?
Skeet shooting is a form of clay target shooting. It is shot with a 12 gauge shotgun – in Aislin’s case a Beretta DT11 Gold Skeet custom fitted by Beretta Australia stock maker Sergei Yauhleuski, and supplied with the support of Beretta Italy. In ISSF events the cartridges contain 24 grams of lead shot with which the targets are broken. Aislin is sponsored by Nobel Sport Italia – The Winning Project (NSI Italy).
The skeet discipline is shot on a semi-circular layout with two clay throwers, referred to as “traps” in houses at either end of the semi-circle. The athletes shoot 25 targets from 8 positions, or stations between the two houses, seven of which are on the semi-circle and an eighth which is near the centre. Many stations see two targets released simultaneously. The targets travel at speeds very close to 100kmh (56mph).
Athletes shoot combinations of single targets and pairs of targets (one from either side of the layout) from the 8 positions.
Athletes acquire the target visually, mount their gun, aim and shoot the target in less than a second, in many cases acquiring and shooting a second target from the opposite side of the ground a fraction of a second later.
Spend some time on Aislin’s site to learn more about this exciting sport, and come back regularly to see where she’s been recently and what she’s achieved.
Thanks! Enjoy! And get out to your local club and try clay target shooting soon…