Te Puke’s James Sullivan a clay target world champ at 17

Te Puke's James Sullivan (17) is the youngest person to ever win the International Clay Target Shooting Federation World DTL title.

Te Puke’s James Sullivan has become the youngest person to win the world clay shooting championship.

Just over a year ago, then 16-year-old James returned from South Africa where he had placed second in the world junior championships. Despite being the first New Zealander to place at junior level, he vowed to do better next time.

Next time came at the weekend when James won the overall International Clay Target Shooting Federation World DTL Championships at Bywell Shooting Ground in Northumberland, England.

In the same competition, he also won the junior world title.

James is a member of Whakatāne Clay Target Club. Committee member John Beaver says: “It’s pretty special for Te Puke and the club are absolutely over the moon — we had a shoot [on Sunday] and everyone is absolutely thrilled.”

The competition is held over three days with 100 targets a day.

Shooters score three points for hitting the target with the first barrel, two for hitting it with the second.

After dropping four points on the first day, James sat in sixth place. He dropped another four on the second day, but had moved up to third.

“Going into the last day three points behind, he had a shot, but he had to do the job,” says John.

After the first 50 targets on the third day, he was still in third place, three points behind the leader.

He then shot a perfect 50 which tied him for first place on 889 out of a possible 900. That meant a 25-target shoot-off.

In the shoot-off he was perfect again, giving him the title over England’s Daniel Price who had dropped three points in the shoot-off.

James is the third New Zealander to win the world title after Colin Waghorn (2008) and Jonathan Beddis (2014).

The next world championships will be held in Christchurch in 2026.

James’ first experience of clay target shooting came when he was 10.

Clay target shooting has various disciplines, with down-the-line (DTL) the most common. There are also various competitions within DTL including doubles — with two chances to hit the target — the discipline in which the world championships were held.

Some see DTL as an apprenticeship for the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF), which is the Olympic discipline that incorporates skeet and trap shooting.

The speed at which the target leaves the trap in DTL is around 60km/h — in ISSF it is 120km/h.