Sheena Sharp (1953- )                                                                                                                                       Back to HoF intro page

Sheena was born in Huntly, Aberdeenshire and works as an office manager there. 

Following in her father and brother's footsteps she started shooting at the age of 11, but gave up five years later when she started working away from home. After a break of 23 years, however, she returned to the sport in a curious way. She was looking for something to do during the winter evenings since her two children had grown up and left home, and her intention was to go to shorthand classes.  When she went to register she was told they had been cancelled as the teacher had taken ill and they could not find a replacement. That night she happened to read an advertisement in the local paper for the Huntly Rifle Club's start of winter season the following week so she decided to go there instead.  On such coincidences is history determined.

For many years Sheena's sport was golf but she resigned as Ladies' Vice Captain at Huntly Golf Club and switched allegiances from the driving range to the rifle range.  After Huntly's outdoor range had to be given up in the mid-1990s due to spiralling rent she was persuaded by Adam Gordon to join Bon Accord to continue outdoor shooting.  She started competing in the SSRA's Grand Prix events and did very well well, and her rapid improvement meant that she was good enough to shoot for Scotland Ladies team at the Scottish Meeting in 1997 and the Bisley Ladies team in 1998.  She's been an almost ever-present member of these teams since then, only absent when she did not attend the meeting. So far, she has also shot six times for the 'open' team at the Bisley meeting (a total exceeded only by Ella Mackenzie) and twice at the Scottish. 

This level of achievement encouraged her to go for National Squad selection (both Scotland and GB) and she qualified the Scotland A squad in 2001, bypassing the usual process of working one's way up from the bottom.  She was also put straight into the Great Britain Women's squad in the same year, and attended the World Championships in Finland in 2002 just before going to the Manchester Commonwealth Games.  She really burst upon the scene at the highest level possible for a woman shooter.  Not your average grandmother then!

The role models who inspired her and gave her great support when she returned to shooting seriously were her father and her brother Bill (who was Scottish Champion winning the Haig at the Lauder Scottish Meeting in 1989). Unfortunately, her father died in 1995, but her first thoughts and comment to Bill after winning her CG Medals in Melbourne seven years later were that their father was not around to share in her success, knowing that he would have been so proud of her achievements.

Unsurprisingly, Sheena has also starred for Great Britain teams.  She succeeded in getting through the rigorous selection process to qualify for the 2005 Pershing Match team which travelled to the USA for the every-eight-years match at the legendary Camp Perry.  She's been in the Dewar team twice (top-scoring the team in 2006 - picture, left, with the award for it).  She's been to two World Championships and two European Championships, and won a bronze medal at the 2005 Nordic Championships.

After her double-Gold success in the Melbourne Games, she was fêted and congratulated by many individuals and organisations, being made Aberdeenshire Sports Person of The Year 2006 (picture, right) and Aberdeen Sports Council Amateur Female Sports Person of the Year 2006.  However, she was only 3rd in the Aberdeen City Council Sports Person of the Year 2006 awards, the winner being the local golfer who had won the US Amateur Championship and 2nd was a swimmer who had also won two Golds at Melbourne, but who also won a Silver.  It's tough at the top.

It's impossible to imagine what achievements Sheena might have reached if she had been shooting at this level for those 23 missing years.

Being in National Squads she has been encouraged to take up 3-positions and air-rifle shooting and she has done so willingly and with some success.  She's improving all the time and time will tell how far she will get with those new challenges.  She has already been in Scotland teams shooting 3P (winning her first full Scotland Cap at 3x40 at Bisley in 2007) and I for one am not betting against future Championship medals at these discipline as well.

 
Go Gran!

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WFH
October 2009