UK LADIES champion pistol shooter, Georgina (Gorgs) Geiki has returned to West Devon after winning a clutch of medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Shooting Federation Championships, held recently in India.

Flying the flag for Chagford and the UK, Gorgs scooped four medals, two individual bronzes and a silver and bronze in the team events. 

Gorgs said she was now 'fired up' for the Commonwealth Games, due to be held in India in October, and she hoped to improve on her latest achievements.

She said these championships were a true 'practise event' for the Commonwealth Games.

There were a few glitches in organisation — including the lack of a UK flag. Luckily, Gorgs bought one in Okehampton before she left, which ended up flying at the opening ceremony!

She said: 'The newly built ranges where we competed were truly world class across all the disciplines. But serious finishing touches are needed around the grounds before October.

'Shooting in India is a very high profile sport, up amongst cricket and hockey. The press and television coverage was fantastic, something that a British shooter is just not used to.

'Although a couple of my major rivals didn't attend the competition, it was still personally a very successful event.'

Gorgs, a graduate in product design, has to juggle part time jobs to enable her to train and compete at international level. She trains at Okehampton Smallbore Club and is sponsored by a number of local businesses, to whom she is very grateful for their support.

She said: 'Training and competing all over the world is not only time consuming, but also costly.

'Additionally, being a British pistol shooter I have the heightened difficulty of not being able to train for one of the two disciplines I compete in, in my own country, thanks to the .22 Pistol Ban of 1996. As a result the British team are forced to train abroad in Switzerland.'

Her immediate aim is the 2010 Commonwealth games — but gold at the London 2010 Olympics is her dream.

Details of her achievements and sponsors can be found on her website http://www.gorgs4gold.com">www.gorgs4gold.com