Flight Cpl. Kyle Bimm has the national marksmanship competition in his sights.
The 16-year-old from Atikokan first joined the marksmanship team about four years ago. Even before he joined the team, he said he’s always enjoyed shooting. He said he started because he enjoyed the friendly competition and it offered a unique challenge.
Kyle often trains twice a week to practice his skills. He proved how good of a shot he had at a number of competitions. He and his team have gone to the third stage of the competition, which is only one level away from the national competition.
Having already had a teammate make it to nationals, Kyle said he has his sights on going too.
“I really strive to hopefully make it to nationals this year,” Kyle said.
“Going to competitions like provincials and nationals, it feels like there’s a lot riding on you because you are supporting a team especially when you get up to the higher ranks when you’re expected to have the high shots. You know one shot here or one shot there can mean the difference between you and four other people getting to go to another competition.”
Overcoming his nerves was one of the biggest challenges, he said. Being patient to ensure an accurate shot requires a lot of concentration. That discipline and the other skills he’s learned in cadets had helped him in his everyday life, he said.
“It requires a lot of patients to do shooting like that,” he said. “Because it is an air rifle, people seem to think it is easy. It’s significantly harder than that. It being such a low powered gun in comparison to other weapons it is difficult to hit the centre. It feels really, really good when you win and advance and beat your previous best.”
Kyle joined 38 other military cadets at the second stage Northwestern Ontario marksmanship competition on Saturday. Kyle faced off against cadets from all across the region. The competition was open to cadets between the ages of 12 and 18.
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Capt. Carol Stanley said the winners of the competition will go onto the stage three competition in Winnipeg. She said it was the first time the competition was held in Thunder Bay in about five years.
The event was moved to the city from Atikokan because of the number of cadets who participated, she said.
Stanley, who is from Atikokan, said it was great to have the competition back in Thunder Bay.
“It’s nice for the kids and me to go someplace else for a change,” Stanley said.
“Thunder Bay used to be the centre of everything that happened but then with transportation and things like that they decided to put some of these competitions out into the smaller communities. So if you were closer to a smaller community then you would participate in that zone. That’s why Atikokan had it for the last five or six years. It was just more central.”
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