Shooting: Trigger happy pair go for gold

By CHRIS RATTUE

Half-hearted does not figure in the life of Teresa Borrell, whose sporting career involves the diverse attractions of yachting and shooting.

Her dedication even extended to deciding with husband Shane to make their home on the range.

Before the 2000 Sydney Olympics, they took up residence in a cottage at the Waitemata Gun Club in Kumeu, northwest of Auckland.

That way Borrell, 40, could do maximum training and carry on her research job (she has a bachelor of science degree in marine biology) at fisheries company Sanford, where she works on subjects such as breeding a better oyster.

The Borrells still live in the cottage. And that determined approach paid off on Sunday night when Borrell and Nadine Stanton, from New Plymouth, won gold in the double trap pairs at the Commonwealth Games.

In their opening event the day before, they finished last out of five teams in Borrell's specialty, the trap, where a single target flies at random.

But on Sunday, with Borrell playing the anchor role, Stanton put in a super effort over the final stage in her specialty to get New Zealand to gold ahead of Canada and Australia in the double, where the clay targets fly in a set pattern.

Borrell's first sporting love is the sea and Shane, who runs a building supply company, shares her passion. He will be an umpire during the Louis Vuitton challenger series before the America's Cup.

After years of being in mixed crews, Borrell put together an all-women team to sail her 15m yacht in the 1994 Auckland-to-Fiji race. The crew then sailed the sometimes wild Sydney-to-Hobart event and won the women's section. They finished off the Tasman Triangle sailing from Hobart to Wellington.

"It was the time of a women's crew in the round-the-world race and I got a bit of a mission on," she said. "It was a campaign that took 13 months with 13 girls - I always remember it that way."

In 1997, Borrell looked down a barrel and hasn't looked back.

She felt the all-women sailing was excluding her husband from her life, and he suggested she join his pursuit of shooting.

After competing at sporting clay meetings her talent was spotted and within three years Borrell was at the Sydney Olympics, where she finished 15th.



With no children, two incomes and a supportive employer, Borrell can prepare for big events better than some. She has competed in Europe since mid-June, at a cost of $7500. And her husband's support has meant everything. "He says, 'Just go out there and do it' with every sporting endeavour I try.

"It will be my turn to support him when the America's Cup is on."

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