A Perthshire schoolgirl with a talent for clay pigeon shooting has racked up a first for Scottish women.
An impressive performance in clay target shooting by Molly Hall, 16, saw her win the junior high gun title in the Welsh Open Championship – making her the first Scottish female to do so.
Despite only taking up the sport in August last year, Strathallan School pupil Molly has already represented Scotland at European championships and was part of a Scottish team to win a British open junior championship.
News of her success comes during Scottish Women and Girls in Sport Week, from October 3 to 9.
Molly said her win in Wales is a moment she won’t forget.
She said: “It feels amazing, to know that I’m the first girl to win it and the first Scottish person, is an incredible achievement.
“I have a tradition of not looking at the scores whilst I shoot so I didn’t know right until prize giving that I’d won. It was a memorable weekend.”
Molly, from Aberlour, Banffshire, trains three times a week at Strathallan School’s shooting academy.
The fee-paying Perthshire school is the only school in Scotland to have a purpose-built compact sporting clay pigeon shooting facility with nine fully-automated traps.
Strathallan girls in sport
Molly is among many Strathallan girls to have represented Team GB or Scotland in sport – recently including skiing sisters Charlie and Katie Guest, hockey goalkeeper Nicki Cochrane and rugby pro Abi Evans.
But the school wants even more to follow in her footsteps, and is putting on a series of activities, talks and games to encourage girls to maintain sporting activity into adulthood, whether competitively or for leisure.
Melissa Forest-Smith, captain of school, said: “Drop off of young women in sport after school is huge.
“We want to encourage as many girls to keep active; sport doesn’t just have to be at an elite-level.”
Conversation