Shooters from all over the province gathered in Williams Lake Aug. 22-24 to compete in the second BC Sporting Clays Association provincial championship.
Competitors came from as far north as Fort St. John and south to Vancouver and Vancouver Island and were joined by others from the Interior in a one-day preliminary and two-day main event.
The Royan family had an outstanding match, with all of them taking home some hardware. Brian was top gun at the main event, while his father, Bill, won a silver as Super Vet in the preliminary and his mother Pam also won silver in the Ladies’ preliminary.
Brian, from Mackenzie, became the new provincial champion winning the high overall trophy in a shoot-off with Chris Cherlenko of Kamloops. Cherlenko settled for the gold medal in the top Masters class, and Wayne Carlson of Fort St. John took home silver, with Vern Turriff winning bronze. Turriff, from Grand Prairie, Albert, also land the Out of Province trophy.
Colin Effa of Kamloops ended up with AA class gold, Alan McLean of Lac La Hache silver and Dennis Royan of Fort St. John, bronze.
Ron Nemecek of Golden won his gold in A class, followed by George Tyler with silver and Marie Brannstrom with bronze. Brannstrom also won a silver in the Ladies Concurrent category.
Brett Thorpe took gold in his B class, John MacDonald of Quesnel shot silver and Eric Mass of Richmond bronze.
Gordon Smith from Prince George carried off the C class gold, Jim O’Brien of Williams Lake won silver and Manny Sangha of Fort St. John gained bronze.
Valerie Morrow of Kamloops won the D class gold and Dean Elliott of Fort St. John placed with silver. Morrow also won a gold in the Ladies Concurrent Class as well as in the preliminary event.
Charlene Steinhubl of Goldon won the gold for E class, with Maureen Page collecting silver and Steen Armstrup of Fort St. John bronze. Steinhubl also won bronze in the Ladies Concurrent class, and Armstrup won gold in the Juniors category in both main and preliminary events.
Top shooter for the preliminary match on Friday was Don Byers in the Masters class, winning the high over all trophy.
The gold medal for master class went to Chris Cherlenko, who bested Dan Hjorth in a shoot-off. Hjorth went home with a silver medal and Brian Royan won bronze.
AA class top gun was Dennis Royan, followed by Jesper Armstrup with silver and Bill Cherlenko taking bronze.
A class gold went to Ron Nemecek, silver to George Tyler and bronze to Marie Brannstrom. B class honours were awarded to Eric Mass with a shoot-off with Brett Thorpe, who took home the silver. Bronze went to Gabor Arata
Joe Hunter won gold in C class, followed by Gord Johnston, silver, who won a shoot-off with Gordon Smith, bronze. Val Morrow lead in D class for a gold medal, leaving silver to Dean Elliott.
Charlene Steinhubl topped E class with Maureen Page earning silver and Cliff Stinson of Williams Lake a bronze.
The sporting clays associations also have concurrent prizes for special classes, including Super vets (67 plus years of age), Vets 60 to 66, Junior 15 to 18 years and Sub Junior, 12 to 14, as well as Ladies.
Ken Kabush of Vancouver earned gold in SV, followed by Bill Cherlenko of Kamloops, silver, and Gabor Arato of Vancouver, bronze. Bet class honours went to Jeff Hall of Pritchard, gold; Nigel Hooke of Valemont, silver and Tom Ferguson of Airdrie, Alberta, bronze. Ladies’ preliminary event winners were Morrow, gold; Pam Royan, silver, and Brannstrom, bronze.
BCSCA president Tony Manuge of Prince George also visited Williams Lake during the weekend to get a first-hand look at the action.
“I’m very pleased with how things went,” Manuge said.
“We have about 25 per cent more people than we had last year in Radium probably because of the proximity [to other cities]. “I’ve had good feedback and we had lots of fun folks come from Vancouver.”
Manuge added the BCSCA will definitely be coming back, however, said he’s not sure where next year’s championships will be located.
“We’ll be coming back,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting it going again for next year, and we’re looking to grow the association and start to provide some training programs for people in B.C.”
