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Well-known clay pigeon shot, Samantha Pennells (right), was successful in qualifying for her Senior Protea colours and is the only lady in South Africa who qualified for the World Championships in Australia in March and April this year. Samantha and her sister, Jessica (left), will also be part of a South African Invitational Ladies Team who will compete in Australia.
National colours for young Samantha
Sport Date: 03 February 2006
Well-known clay pigeon shot, Samantha Pennells, was successful in qualifying for her Senior Protea colours.
The 17-year-old Samantha, a Grade 12 learner of Louis Trichardt High School, is the only lady in South Africa who qualified for the World Championships in Australia this year.
Samantha will represent South Africa as a senior lady in the upcoming World DTL (Down the Line) Championships in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales in Australia, from March 28 to April 9. She will also be part of a South African Invitational Ladies Team consisting of herself, her sister Jessica, and Michelle Geissler from Gauteng, the same three ladies who managed to beat the Australian A-Team in England in 2004 and received bronze medals for third place.
Samantha was the only lady nationwide to obtain the MQS or Minimum Qualifying Score, which is an average of 276 points out of a possible 300 over 1200 targets (76%), with the best 600 to count. Samantha, her sister Jessica, and her dad, Howard, shot the trials. While Samantha is the only lady to qualify, Howard made the National Squad of 10 shooters. The average for men is 286/300 points.
When Samantha heard the wonderful news, she was at school.
“I was so excited I started crying,” she said. Samantha practices very hard and shoots every Saturday. She is coached by her dad and sometimes helped by Australian Olympic Coach, John Maxwell.
Samantha is not only shooting DTL (Down the Line). She and Jessica (19) also shoot the Olympic discipline Olympic Trap and hope to eventually qualify for the Commonwealth games.
Samantha and her dad also shoot Sporting and will be shooting the Limpopo Open Compak Sporting this weekend in Polokwane.
Samantha has already managed to get her provincial colours several times. She was the SA Ladies Champion in 2002 and has been included in the Limpopo Chairman’s Provincial Team from 2003 to2005. Both Samantha and Jessica have also qualified for CTSASA (Clay Target Shooting Associations of South Africa) Merit colours.
Samantha is an ardent sportsperson who also has provincial colours in cricket.
Written by
Linda van der Westhuizen
Linda van der Westhuizen has been with Zoutnet since 2001. She has a heart for God, people and their stories. Linda believes that every person is unique and has a special story to tell. It follows logically that human interest stories is her speciality. Linda finds working with people and their leaders in the economic, educational, spiritual and political arena very rewarding. “I have a special interest in what God is doing in our town, province and nation and what He wants us to become,” says Linda.
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