Former Speyside High pupil identified as a potential athlete for the next Olympics in Los Angeles
A place in Team GB at the next Olympics in Los Angeles is the ultimate dream of sharpshooter Molly Hall.
But equally the Knockando trap shooting star would love to inspire more women to give her sport a try and aim for their own targets in life.
Molly, 19, has been selected by the British Shooting governing body to join its new Olympic and Paralympic Potential Programme.
Its aim is to identify athletes with the ability to move up to BG’s top-level World Class Programme and compete for a place in the LA Games, or showing enough potential to develop towards the following Olympics in Brisbane in 2032.
Molly is already part of a similar Scottish programme preparing talent towards the Commonwealth Games.
Britain won a trap shooting gold medal in last year’s Olympics in Paris, and one of Molly’s idols in the sport is Nathan Hales, who was part of GB’s winning team on top of that podium, as well as claiming two silver medals for individual and mixed pairs trap.
Nathan and Molly even had the same coach for a spell and she met and chatted with the champ on occasions - and it has ignited her own Olympic dreams.
“It would mean everything to make the Olympics one day,” she said. “I’ve got idols from the Olympics just past and watching them just kind of feeds your hunger for it.
“Nathan is a lovely guy. We met over in Italy and Spain in competitions and down in England. We only really meet at competitions where he's competing as well, so it's very quick conversations.”
Molly was encouraged to try shooting by her stepdad, Willie Smith, a gamekeeper who has also shot for Scotland and has a shooting trap at the family home in Speyside.
The former Speyside High pupil started competing in down-the-line (DTL) trap shooting four years ago, winning British, Scottish and Welsh championship titles.
She also earned a place at Strathallan in Perthshire, which is the only school in Scotland that has it’s own driving range.
While competing in DTL, she was only able to compete in women’s or junior competitions, winning the British shotgun series in England before deciding to take up a slightly different form of shotgun sport a year ago.
“At that point, I kind of thought I should take up the Olympic Trap (OT). Since then I've shot for GB and I've been selected on this programme.”
She now competes in a junior ladies category and will be eligible until she turns 21.
Trap shooting doesn’t attract too many female competitors in Britain but Molly’s achievements put her in the position to be a role model for other young women in sport.
“To give you an example, the top six in each category go into a final of any competition in OT,” she explained.
“Very rarely are there six junior ladies in the UK to fill up a final. When you go abroad, there's plenty places like Italy that have loads, but not over here.
“It’s not popular with females here but if what I’ve been doing so far helps to encourage more to try it, then I would hope I could be a role model for them.”
Molly has had to travel many miles for her shooting, with much of her training being done at the Auchterhouse range in Dundee, as well as from her time at Strathallan.
On the new Olympic programme she will follow a largely domestic-based training and support rota, as well as integrating with the top shooters on the World Class Programme.
“All of the training is in England from what I understand. I have a training camp in April, which is down in Cambridgeshire so I'll fly down for that.
“I'm the only Scottish shotgun athlete on the programme, there is one Scottish rifle girl as well.”
International events and training have already taken her to the Spanish Grand Prix in Malaga and both the Junior World Cup and Emir Cup competitions in Italy, as well as training camps in Sicily and Portugal.
There are two more World Cup events this year and Molly would dearly love to make the podium at some stage.
“The dream would be to win one or even to place in the Junior World Cup. I go there to represent GB, and last week I found out I’ve been selected for one in Germany in May.
“There’s another one happening later in the year in India, but I know that won’t be cheap. We’ll see how it goes but I hope to be at that one if I can.”