By Callum Ludwig
Young Warburton resident Benjamin De Pedro is jetting off with his family to Spain to represent Australia in the Universal Trench World Championships this August.
17-year-old Ben first got into the sport of shooting by joining the clay shooting club offered at Lilydale High School.
Ben said he started in Year 7 and thought he’d just give it a go to see what it’s like and enjoyed it heaps.
“From then on, I started going to competitions on the weekend, going to some bigger ones and winning and improving and then this year, I decided to go towards a selection event for the World Championships,” he said.
“We went around Australia to events to qualify for it, and it feels great and is so exciting to be going.”
Universal trench, also known as ‘five-trap’, involves targets being shot up from one of a group of five traps installed in a trench in front of the shooter. 25 targets per round are shot out at different angles, elevations and speeds and the athlete gets only two shots to hit it a score a single point.
Ben said looking back, it amazes even him how much he has improved so quickly.
“I remember starting off you have to learn to shoot either left-handed or right-handed, but it’s more based on your eyes rather than what hand you use to write. I’m right-handed in catching, throwing writing, everything but my right eye is my lazy eye,” he said.
I’m lucky one of my teachers noticed and made me change because if I kept shooting right-handed, I probably wouldn’t be where I am now at this point.”
Ben has already won many sashes and high-gun awards at country and local competitions, as well as;
Being awarded Junior State Champion for Universal Trench in February this year,
Making the ISSF Trench State Team set to compete in the National titles in Brisbane in 2024,
Making the Junior South East Zone team twice,
Being the first person to win the Chris Carol Cup,
Winning the Overall High Gun at the Yarra Valley Regional Clay Target Shooting Competition in May, held at the Melbourne Gun Club in Yering where he is a member.
Ben said the people at the Melbourne Gun Club are great and always happy to help out.
“I really love it all, the community is great, you feel safe there and they’re all happy to have a chat, they’ve all helped me throughout my journey and without some of that advice, I don’t know if I’d be able to have made the team this year,” he said.
I want to do my best, and it’d be great to make it to the Olympics one day or be the world champion in the highest discipline possible. At some point everyone can hit a target, it’s just about being able to keep hitting that target over and over.”
