First medal for Northern Ireland

28 July 2002

David Calvert and Martin Millar won Northern Ireland's first medal of Manchester 2002 by taking gold in the open full bore rifle pairs.

Calvert and Miller take gold at Bisley

It was a close finish as Calvert and Millar retained the title that they won in Kuala Lumpur with a total of of 590 points. They just pipped South African duo Peter Bramley and David Dodds who finished one point behind the defending champions. England’s Jane Messer and Glyn Barnett took the bronze with a score of 588.

The victory was made even sweeter for 51-year-old David Calvert because it put him equal with the great Mary Peters in winning three Commonwealth gold medals for Northern Ireland.

Calvert, an RAF pilot, said: “We are both delighted. We came onto the final range with quite a lot of work to do, and conditions were very tricky. We worked hard and all our training paid off.”

Messer and Barnett were disappointed to finish in third after leading at 900 yards. Barnett said: “The result is usually down to how you perform at 1,000 yards. We struggled a bit with the wind at the start, and we failed to gain a few points which ultimately cost us the match.”