A CRIMDON Olympic Skeet Shooter is celebrating winning the UK Championships and hopes for a return to the Great Britain squad.

Jeremy Bird, 26, earned the UK title in Beverley earlier this month with a very impressive score of 121 out of 125 and also got a silver medal for GB selection.

Bird, who has been shooting in this discipline for ten years, said: “This is the highlight of my domestic career, it was nice to do it in the north. I have never done much at home.

“I am waiting to find out whether or not I have reclaimed a spot on the GB team. This result will certainly open a few doors because it was a good score.”

Jeremy works on his parents’ farm and explained how much it would mean for him to be able to make the GB squad.

He said: “It is a fantastic opportunity to represent my country and travel all over the world. You see so many different things.

“A lot of hard work goes into it and you can shoot against the best in the world.”

Jeremy also recently competed in Kuwait, finishing fourth having been leading for much of the competition. He puts success in the sport down to mental strength.

He added: “It is about having that brain and the mental ability to keep breaking the targets. Anxiety kicks in if you are trying too hard.

“It is about muscle memory and repetition, repetition, repetition. You have to run on that knife edge.”

Jeremy, who uses a sponsored Caesar Guerini Invictus 1 gun, said he is yet to reach the best years of his career.

He said: “The longer you play the better you get, 30 to 35 is when you are in your prime. The guy who won in Kuwait was about 50 years-old.”

Bird has been shooting from the age of nine and has his own shooting range on the farm.

The shooter said: “We always had guns on the farm and I had a massive gun obsession from a very young age!

“I couldn’t have done it without my family.”

Jeremy also explained how working on his parent’s farm is an ideal job for him. He said: “If you work full-time you do not get good enough.

“When you work on a farm you can do your work on a night. It is not a sport every person could do.”