By Tate Papworth
Eighteen months ago James Sacchetta decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and take up skeet shooting.
In that short space of time he’s risen to national champion after taking out the under-18 title at the 2019 National Skeet Shooting Championships last month.
While it’s been a rapid ascension, Sacchetta said it has also been a lot of hard work.
“I did nationals last year and didn’t go so good. I’d only just started,” he said.
“But I trained a lot and knew I’d improved. I’d been shooting well in the lead-up to this event and thought I’d go a lot better.”
Over the course of the event Sacchetta shot 436/450 targets to claim the championship, just one shot clear of second place (435)
He said that it’s as much a psychological battle as it is skill.
“It’s mostly mental, especially when you’re shooting off against someone and everybody is watching,” he said.
“That’s where the training comes in, I just had to remind myself of my training and that I’d done all the work.”
But Sacchetta isn’t satisfied yet.
“I really want to go further with it. I’m thinking I might go to New Zealand for their national titles and possibly over to America next year for the world titles,” he said.
