Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport Podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
New Zealand and the Home Straight.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Kiewis Weekend Sport Road to Paris twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
At a Paris Olympic Games are drawing ever closer, and
as we travel the road to Paris, we're looking back
on some of the great Olympic moments from games past.
New Zealand's best ever Olympic shooting result came in twenty
sixteen at Rio, when Natalie Rooney won silver in the trap.
Having competed internationally since two thousand and six, she was
(00:49):
fifth at the twenty ten Deli Commonwealth Games and fourth
at the twenty fourteen Glasgow Commonwealth Games. At the Rio Olympics,
she successfully negotiated a shoot off to reach the final,
where she won silver, beaten narrowly by Australian Catherine Skinner.
The following year, Natali Rooney he claimed the number one
world ranking in trap shooting. She also competed at the
(01:11):
Tokyo Olympic Games, where she placed eleventh. Natalie Rooney is
with us. Natalie, thanks for taking the time to wander
down memory lane of it back to twenty sixteen. What
stands out most vividly when you remember back to to
Rio twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Obviously winning silver, which was pretty pretty amazing, and really
just the experience. I've been to a couple of comm
off games, but the Olympics just like this next level
and just being in that New Zealand team. It's such
(01:50):
a special, special thing to be part of and just
being in awe of all the athletes that you're surrounded by.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Really tell us about the shoot off to reach the
gold medal match, How did the whole infect take it back?
How did the whole competition play out up to the
shoot off, and then we can talk about the final.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yep, I it was so long ago now, that so
back back when I was back in two thousand and sixteen.
I've changed our program quite a few times since then,
but that back then we only shot one day for ladies,
and we were shooting twenty five three rounds of twenty
(02:34):
five out of seventy five targets. And for me, I
just remember waking up that day and knowing I'm ready
to go, which is quite a good day really when
you wake up and you're like, yep, I'm ready to go,
and yeah, everything went pretty smoothly until my last round
(02:56):
of competition and there was a bit of like a
windstorm that kind of came through when I was shooting,
which I ended up listening a few targets, putting a
bit more pressure on me because letting into that round,
I was probably placed it at second or third I think.
And yeah, and then the wind came through. I missed
(03:19):
a few targets which put quite a lot of pressure
on me, but managed to give through to the final. Luckily,
I think I made it through in like fourth place
or something like that. Yeah, and then final, the final,
which is top six of the competition make it through
to the final, and I just remember I was so
(03:42):
ready for that final. I had spent two months prior
over in Ashley training with my coach, and yeah, that
training all just really came into practice and I was
so ready for it. And yeah came what. I shot
thirteen out of fifteen I think in the single barrel.
(04:04):
When you come to the final, and I had to
shoot off against Corey Godrill from the USA to make
it into the final. I want goldbeatle match, So yeah,
I shooting extremely well.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, well, I mean silver medal beast ever result by
a New Zealand shooter. I think you actually even lad
in the final, didn't you. It was eventually a thriller.
Twelve eleven yea, How close did you feel to winning
that gold?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
It was? It was very very close. It was. I
just I think in that last goldbeatle match, I actually
dropped two lots of till in a row I remember,
which just really came down to the nerve that was
all really. I was shooting so well. But yeah, shooting
(04:59):
is such a huge mental game, and yeah it kind
of fouled me a little bit on the end, but
I can't really complain. Walking away was still the middle.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Absolutely. When you talk about it being a mental game,
just just unpack that for us. How do you feel
when you're shooting really really well? Is it just a
serenity that comes over you.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Yeah, you're kind of in this like you know, it's
just like a real flow state where you're everything is,
you know, working really well. You're because once you've got
the skill down and you train and train and train,
it's all about repetitions and making sure everything is working perfectly.
(05:44):
And when that actually happens, it's an amazing feeling and
it's not as if you're even trying. And yeah, so
for that to actually happen, it's very rare. So yeah,
it's it's quite a it's an awesome feeling to happen,
but it doesn't happen very often.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
How did you get into the sport.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Family. I've got three brothers and a dad that all
had shot, not bull shooting at the moment, but they
we grew up shooting. Really my older brother Sam, he
got us all into it. He was born as spina difita,
but absolutely loved sport and that was kind of the
(06:28):
sport that he started at school and then from there
we all kind of followed along.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
And there were several different disciplines in the sport of shooting,
aren't they. How did you settle on trap shooting?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
That was really what we did. We mainly did trap shooting.
There's we started with what we call down the line,
which is like an easier version, and it wasn't until
I was eighteen, I think that I got selected for
a team from the school shooting to do a Youth
(07:02):
Olympic Games over in Sydney, and from there that was
my first taste of what we call I wcfiel or
the Olympic trap. So from there that's what I started doing,
the Olympic trap, and yeah, I just got that taste
and wanted more and wanted that challenge.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Of course, four years before Rio, the New Zealand Shooting
Federation nominated you as their sole competitor for London twenty twelve,
but then prime rifle shooter Ryan Taylor appealed to the
Sports Tribunal had the decision overturned in his favor. How
difficult a time was that for you being selected and
then being unselected?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, that was very tough. Yeah it was. It wasn't
an easy time, but it kind of worked in like
and hindsight, it's worked in my favor. Like if I'd
gone to those games, I don't know if I would
have been in the position that I was for REO. Yeah,
it's kind of It's a tricky one because that non
(08:05):
selection in the end drove me harder, like and made
me racist what I was doing and want to be Like, Like,
I set that goal that I had to be at
that next Olympics and what was going to get me there?
And that got me to change what I was doing
(08:27):
head over to Italy, get my coach and yeah, really
nail it down and it definitely works. So you know,
if I had gone to London, I don't know as
much it would have changed. So I'm quite I mean
thankful for that.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Really tell us a bit about your training regime. You
talked before about the couple of months heading into Rio.
What does what does a training regime day to day
look like in the in the lead up to a
big event like an Olympic Games.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yes, so prior to COVID, should I say prior to
the Rio Games? I would be open to leave quite
a lot obviously with my coach who was based there,
so I would travel work to Italy for any competition. Really,
I'd spend probably one to two months over there prior
training leading up to it, which would consist of me
(09:22):
shooting I think three to four days on one day
off and then that would be out at the shooting
range at eight eight point thirty in the morning, shooting
all the way out to lunchtime, having maybe an hour
an hour and a half for lunch, and then you
carry on shooting to about five to five o'clock in
the afternoon, as well as doing gym work and that
(09:45):
around that as well.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
How mentally draining is all of that training.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
It's very mentally draining. That's why only we kind of
played around. And I think for me the best was
shooting three to four days and then one day off.
I needed that day off just to re energize so
then I could come back the next day and be
ready to train again. Or if we had a competition,
go and do that. I personally couldn't shoot seven days
(10:15):
a week. There as some people that can do it,
but it's yeah, it's just a mental drain of it.
Like it's and especially when you're in these hot countries
as well. You're just out there all day every day
and it's not like a hugely physical sport, but you know,
it's it's just that mental capacity to be able to
(10:37):
be there present for that whole time.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
And how does that drainage manifest itself? Like do you
get headaches? Do your eyes get sore? What happens when
you when you overshoot? If you did shoot seven days
in a row, you know, end on end?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Yeah, so I are we contact lenses for shooting just
because my eyes aren't one hundred percent anymore? So yeah,
they would get extremely dry for being in the sunlight
streaming in onto your eyes as well, like and just
(11:13):
you're looking. It's a weird thing. You're looking so hard
all the time that you're over using your eyes, if
that makes sense. And yeah, it's just like a continual drain.
And yeah, I would get quite bad headaches and nighttime
as well as I was doing too much as well
(11:35):
as just you get very sore shoulders and necks just
from the continual shooting and the the you know, the
compounding of the gun going off all the time.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
When the target comes out. Has there been studies done?
Do you know how long you have it? How long
your reaction time is before you see it and you
pull the trigger. It must be a fraction of a second,
is it?
Speaker 3 (12:07):
So when we call for a target at instant so
when you call pull that target will come out straight away.
There's no delay. And from the it is like I
think it's point like if you're really onto, it's zero
point five or second or something like that when you
(12:28):
fire your first barrel.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Wo wow. What I've often wondered as well about about
international travel. If you're a runner, you just chuck your
shoes in your bag, aren't you? And you're and you're
running gear. What are the extra layers of complication when
you're traveling with firearms.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah, it's not easy. That's the other thing. Like you
can't just plan to pack up and go somewhere next week.
It's months in advance of getting permits, both for the
countries that you're going to as well as the airlines.
You know, there's a lot of restrictions around the airlines
(13:06):
that you travel with. Now you can't travel with through
different airlines. You have to have one airline going the
whole way because they don't transfer guns between airlines. And
then you know the countries that you go to, you
have to get pyramits for every country that you're going into.
Because being from New Zealand, we have a firearms license,
(13:31):
but our license doesn't have our gun on our license
like in Europe, all their licenses is their gun is
licensed to them, right whereas we don't have our gun
license to us. We can just well, now it's the
firearms registry. You have a license to you, but you
can have as many guns as you want, whereas over
(13:51):
in Europe they have a firearms license that's got their
gun on it at least theeral number. So for us,
I've had issues places like going into Cypress or the
European Urine Union, where they go, how do I know
that this gun is yours? You know? And then it
also is restrictions in that from. Every country is different
(14:13):
with their rules and regulations. Some places you can pick
your gun up at the airport and just carry on
and do whatever you want with it. Are the Hunteries.
You can't have your gun on you in that country.
It has to be taken straight away to the gun
club or the armory or wherever it's being kept, and
(14:34):
you can only have it when you're shooting.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
So it's very different for every country that you go to.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Well, just an extra hour of complication even before you
start thinking about competing. Yeah, are you still involved, Natalie?
You still do you still shoot?
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Guess I am a little bit. I'm very much involved
with the Timorrow Gun Club timor Clayte Club should I say.
And at home, but I've just had a son who's
turning nine months old tomorrow, so I've tried to be
as present as I can for him, and he's kind
(15:12):
of at that tricky age where I can't really do
too much without him so going shooting doesn't really as
it's really been easy. But yeah, I'm never I don't
think it's a sport that I'm never going to be
able to step away from completely, to be honest, It's
just it's going to always be there, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
And I've asked all of the guests we've had on
the segment the same question, where do you keep your
silver medal? Where is it?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
I'm not one hundred percent sure. I have a feeling
it might be in my gum face, but something along
those lines.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
All right, well, I'm sure it's somewhere. I'm sure it's somewhere.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Natalie.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
It's been great to get the chance to chat to you. Incredibly,
we've lasted fifteen minutes without being interrupted by your son,
which is amazing good. We've scheduled brilliantly. Hey, congratulations on
that that wonderful moment back in twenty sixteen in Rio.
It's been awesome to get the chance to chat and
to reminisce a little bit with you. Thank you for
taking the.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Time, no worries, thank you, Thank you, Natalie.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Natalie Rooney there silver medalist in the Trap shooting in
twenty sixteen. The latest guest on our road to Paris,
which actually is coming to an end. We're going to
be in Paris before you know it. In terms of
the Olympic Games, they start on the twenty sixth of July.
It's the first of July tomorrow, so yeah, we're nearly there,
(16:36):
less than falls away from the start of it. Our
news Talks he'd B is an official radio partner of
the Olympic Games and our sister station, gold Sport gearing
up to bring you through the night commentary right across
the Olympic Games. We'll keep an eye in an ear
on all of the New Zealand athletes heading to Paris
and bring you basically wall to wall commentary of the
(16:59):
Paris Olympic Games on gold Sport. Presumable start at about
eight o'clock each night New Zealand time, go through that
into into the breakfast hours when some of the finals
are in the swimming and the athletics and things like that.
So yeah, really looking forward to bringing the Olympic Games,
the Parasolic Games to you on gold Sport and also
here on news Talk SEDB.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
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