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Aislin Jones

Aislin Jones
Aislin Jones - ISSF World Cup Baku 2016
Personal information
Nationality Australia
Born (2000-02-08) 8 February 2000 (age 24)
Shepparton, Australia
Years active2012-present
Height1.60 m (5 ft 3 in)
Sport
CountryAustralia
SportSport shooter
Rank35
Event(s)ISSF Women's Skeet, ISSF Skeet Mixed Teams
Coached byDavid Jones, Lauryn Mark
Medal record
Women's shooting
Representing  Australia
ISSF World Cup
Bronze medal – third place Baku Mixed Teams Skeet
ISSF Junior World Cup
Gold medal – first place 2018 Sydney Skeet
ISSF Junior Cup
Silver medal – second place 2017 Suhl Skeet
ISSF Junior Cup
Silver medal – second place 2017 Suhl Skeet
ISSF Regional Championships
Gold medal – first place 2023 Oceania Championship Skeet
Silver medal – second place 2017 National Championship Skeet
Bronze medal – third place 2019 National Championship Skeet
Bronze medal – third place 2015 National Championship Skeet
ACTA National Championships
Gold medal – first place 2024 National Championship Skeet
Gold medal – first place 2023 National Championship Skeet
Gold medal – first place 2022 National Championship Skeet
2021 No National Championship event COVID Skeet
Gold medal – first place 2020 National Championship Skeet
Gold medal – first place 2019 National Championship Skeet
Gold medal – first place 2017 National Championship Skeet
Gold medal – first place 2016 National Championship Skeet
Silver medal – second place 2015 National Championship Skeet

Aislin Jones (/æʃˈlɪn/ ash-LIN; born 8 February 2000) is a women's skeet shooter from Australia. She won the Australian National Championship in January 2016, becoming the youngest woman ever to hold that title. She is the current Oceania Region Junior Women's Skeet Record holder.

Education

In 2018 Jones is completed her Victorian Certificate of Education at Nagle College in Bairnsdale, Victoria Australia.[1][2]

After an extended gap year during which Jones competed internationally and studied a Cert IV in Fitness with FitNation, she commenced a Bachelor of Commerce at Deakin University which she is undertaking part time on a part sports scholarship.

Career

Early and domestic

Jones developed an interest in shooting while following her father David Jones, around the Bairnsdale Field and Game clay target range from an early age.[3][4] She started shooting in 2012 and switched from simulated field to skeet later that year. Jones competed in her first Australian Clay Target Association (ACTA) national championships at the age of 13, held at Wagga Wagga in 2013.[5] The following year Jones won six medals at the ACTA national championships at Wagga Wagga and the National Women's Champion of Champions in the mixed 12 gauge/20 gauge event with a score of 99/100.[6]

In late 2014 Jones switched from American Skeet to ISSF skeet in order to achieve her Olympic and Commonwealth Games aspirations. At her first competitive ISSF skeet shoot in October 2014, she won the Victorian Ladies' Championship at Werribee Clay Target Club.[7]

International

In 2015 Jones competed in her first international competition, finishing 23rd in the junior world championships and 6th in the ISSF junior cup. In early 2016 she became the youngest winner of the Australian National Skeet Championship at the age of 15.[8][9]

Jones represented Australia in Women's Skeet at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016, finishing in 17th place.[2] Jones was the second youngest Australian athlete,[8] and the youngest of the 390 shooting athletes from around the world.[10] At 16 years of age, she was also the youngest Australian shooter ever to compete at any Olympic Games.[11]

In October 2017 Jones broke the Oceania Women's Skeet, junior and senior records[12] and in January 2018, at the Australian Nationals in Echuca she won the Commonwealth championship, Australian Championship and High Gun.[13]

In March 2018 she won her first ISSF gold medal at the Junior World Cup in Sydney.[14][15]

Jones has been named in the Australian shooting team for the 2018 Commonwealth Games[16][17] and finished 6th, after finishing second in the qualifying round.[18]

Competing at ISSF Junior World Championships in 2018 in Changwon (9th), 2019 in Lonato (11th) rounded out her international junior career without the opportunity to compete during COVID interruptions to international travel. During the COVID period where international travel and competition was particularly difficult for Australians Jones competed at state and national championships when able.

Returning to international competition and moving from junior to open competition Jones competed at the 2022 & 2023 World Championships in Osijek & Baku finishing 33rd & 27th respectively.

Jones achieved Qualifying Ranking Points for the Paris Olympic Games at each of the ISSF World Cups attended during the Paris Qualifying Ranking period.[19]

In November 2023 Jones won the gold medal at the ISSF Oceania Regional Championships in Brisbane attaining a quota place for the Paris 2024 Olympics for Australia.

The selection series run by Shooting Australia to determine the athlete nominated to compete for Australia at the Paris Olympics was conducted from January 2024 to May 2024. Commencing with two events at the Australian National Championships in Brisbane, it included the NSW Clay Target Association State Championships in February 2024 and the domestic series concluded with the Yarra Valley Grand Prix at Melbourne Gun Club in Victoria. At the conclusion of the domestic series Jones had a 6 point lead over Laura Coles from Western Australia.

The top three athletes from the domestic series progressed to the ISSF Olympic Qualification Championship in Doha, Qatar and the ISSF World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan. At the Doha event Jones placed 27th but added 5 points in the Australian selection series to take her lead to 11 over Coles and 40 points over Britany Melbourne.

At her first ISSF World Cup for 2024 in Baku, Jones finished 8th. Adding a further 14 points to her selection total at this event Jones finished 25 points clear of Coles and 58 points ahead of Melbourne,[20] securing her nomination to the Australian Olympic Committee for her second Olympic Team to represent Australia in Paris. The team will be announced on 27 June.

Personal life

Jones grew up in Lakes Entrance, in southeast Victoria.[21] Her parents still reside in Lakes Entrance and she returns home for coaching with father David at Bairnsdale Field and Game, and Bairnsdale Clay Target Club. During COVID Jones built a house in Leongatha with her partner and moved to South Gippsland, closer to university, her coach Lauryn Mark and Melbourne Airport.

When not competing, Jones enjoys distance running and aims to participate in her first marathon in 2024.[22]

Awards

  • Gippsland Sports Academy Gippstar Award 2017.[23]
  • East Gippsland Shire Young Citizen of the Year 2018, for outstanding contribution to her sport.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b "East Gippsland Shire announces Australia Day Award winners". eastgippsland.vic.gov.au. 23 January 2018. Archived from the original on 26 January 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  2. ^ a b Talbot, Sam (July 2017). "Youth in Focus Aislin Jones". Australian Shooter. Last year Aislin represented Australia on the world's biggest stage and was the youngest individual athlete in the 2016 Olympic Games team the age of 16, finishing 17th in the women's skeet
  3. ^ Harper, Tony (8 August 2016). "Rio Olympics 2016: Why shooter Aislin Jones chose Olympics over private school education". foxsports.com.au. Archived from the original on 15 March 2018. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  4. ^ "Long locks and two smoking barrels". gippslandia.com.au. 15 May 2017. Archived from the original on 6 April 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  5. ^ "Aislin's hitting the mark". Bairnsdale Advetiser. Yeates Media. 13 May 2013. Lakes Entrance's Aislin Jones took up skeet shooting 14 months ago, and has made stunning progress. Such is her talent as a skeet shooter that she will next week head to Wagga Wagga, in southern NSW for the national skeet championships... "This is my first big competition and its pretty exciting and also a bit nerve racking because its the whole of Australia" Aislin, 13, said
  6. ^ "Aislin continues cracking form". East Gippsland news. Yeates Media. 28 May 2014. Fourteen-year-old shooting sensation, Aislin Jones, has brought home a swag of six medals and a blue sash from the Australian Clay Target Association (ACTA) national shooting ground at Wagga Wagga, NSW last week. Aislin won 2014 ladies Champion of Champions on 99/100 in the mixed 12g/20g event, but also "B" grade, sub juniors (blue sash) and 28-gauge "B" grade.
  7. ^ "Stunning start". East Gippsland News. Yeats Media. 22 October 2014. In superb conditions at the Werribee Clay Target Club on Saturday, Aislin Jones achieved something that few would have thought possible. In her first event shooing International Sport Shooting Federation (ISSF) skeet, she came home with the Victorian Ladies' Championship sash and was only two targets away from winning her grade in her first competition in the international version of her sport. In order to achieve her Olympic and Commonwealth Games aspirations she has had to switch disciplines from American skeet to ISSF skeet (also known as international skeet
  8. ^ a b "Aislin Jones Fast Facts". olympics.com.au. Archived from the original on 27 January 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  9. ^ King, Simon (18 April 2016). "Rio Olympics: Aislin Jones aiming high and on target for Games". The Australian. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  10. ^ "Shooting sport is about to debut at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games". ISSF. 4 August 2016. Archived from the original on 27 January 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  11. ^ "Rio Olympics 2016: Victorian teenager Aislin Jones youngest to shoot for Australia". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 April 2016. Archived from the original on 27 January 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  12. ^ "Oceania Records". "SHOOTING BY" Shooting Portal. Archived from the original on 27 January 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  13. ^ "Triple clean sweep for Jones". Bairnsdale Advertiser. Yeates Media. January 2018. Lakes Entrance shooter, Aislin Jones, has claimed a clean sweep of all three national titles up for grabs in ISSF women's skeet at this year's ACTA National ISSF Championships in Echuca. The Australian Commonwealth Games skeet shooting nominee for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April has come away from the annual championships with the trifecta, taking the Commonwealth women's skeet championship, national women's skeet championship and overall women's high gun. The two championships were run over Monday and Tuesday of last week.
  14. ^ "Aislin Jones grabs Australia's first gold in Sydney!". issf-sports.org. 27 March 2018. Archived from the original on 30 March 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  15. ^ Allen, Greg (28 March 2018). "AISLIN JONES WINS THE ISSF JUNIOR WORLD CUP". trfm.com.au. Archived from the original on 30 March 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  16. ^ "Young and old in Comm Games shooting team". sbs.com.au. 31 January 2018. Archived from the original on 10 February 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  17. ^ Pavitt, Michael (4 February 2018). "Australia name diving, shooting and table tennis teams for Gold Coast 2018". insidethegames.biz. Archived from the original on 10 February 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  18. ^ "Shooting: Shooting - Women's Skeet". bbc.com. 8 April 2018. Archived from the original on 8 April 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  19. ^ "ISSF - International Shooting Sport Federation - issf-sports.org". www.issf-sports.org. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  20. ^ "2024 Paris Olympics Team Nomination Leaderboard" (PDF). Shooting Australia Olympics Nomination Leaderboards. 9 May 2024. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  21. ^ Smith, Riahn (20 July 2016). "A sight for sure eyes". The Weekly Times. Archived from the original on 27 January 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  22. ^ She made history as Australia's youngest ever Olympic shooter, now the Gippsland star hopes to book a ticket to her second Olympic Games. Aislin Jones... | By WIN News Gippsland | Facebook. Retrieved 10 June 2024 – via www.facebook.com.
  23. ^ "Open Annual Gippstar Winners". sportgippsland.org.au. 2017. Archived from the original on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2018.