4x Canadian national champion competitive pistol marksman located in Vancouver, Canada 🇨🇦
Wednesday, October 5, 2022
Wow, it's already Fall again! ...bye Summer!
Monday, July 5, 2021
Cancelled: Canadian National Pistol, Rifle, & Trap Championship
The 2021 Canadian National Pistol, Rifle, and Trap Championships have been cancelled for 2021. The Skeet National Championships will still happen. Official message from the Shooting Federation of Canada be found here.
It looks like my next competition will be the 1st Panamerican Shooting Championships to be held in Lima, Peru in October.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Double Gold - 50m and 10m National Pistol Champion!
Outside the Pan Am Shooting Centre after winning the 10m event! |
What it looks like before I start my 60 shot competition! |
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Arrived in Toronto for 2019 Canadian National Pistol Championships!
Night before travel getting my equipment organized |
PS: I added a form on my website also if you want to contact me. Awesome.
Monday, July 8, 2019
Spring 2019 Updates
My competitor number for the 2019 HPTT |
Lynda Kiejko, Allan Harding, Kim Britton, Liz Gustafson |
Mark Hynes and Allan Harding |
Do it! |
Visiting Target Sports Canada range with Nic from TheGunBlog.ca |
On my way to Munich, Germany! Thanks for the upgrade Air Canada! |
Competitor number for ISSF Munich World Cup stage |
Lynda, Lea, Lisa, me |
Team Canada out for food and drinks |
The busy indoor 10m range in Munich |
I stopped in to visit ELEY to test out their tenex air pellets for my Steyr evo10e air pistol.
Barrel testing ELEY tenex air in my Steyr evo10e |
ELEY tenex air acquired! Let's do this! |
After getting back from Munich I had a few days at home before flying back out to Toronto for a training camp. I stopped in and visited a couple ranges while there. I stopped in and met with members of Toronto Revolver Club and also stopped in and visited Silverdale Gun Club.
Visiting Toronto Revolver Club! |
Shooting 25m distance at Silverdale. Beautiful day! |
Then back at the high performance team training camp to train with my Team Canada teammates on their way to the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru.
Stuart Burns and Mark Hynes shooting 10m at training camp |
I'm currently in Whitehorse, Yukon and back to training soon to get ready for the 2019 Canadian National Pistol Championships. Stay tuned!
Also find me on Twitter and Instagram as @alharding!
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
2018 Canadian National Pistol Champion!
Today I took home the gold in the men's 10m pistol event and defended my title to become the 2018 Canadian National Pistol Champion! Also took the 2018 10m mixed team National Champion title with Lynda Kiejko @Cdnshootingstar #targetsports #issf ...dedicated to my grandma ❤️ pic.twitter.com/L3d8p90wmt— Allan Harding (@alharding) July 12, 2018
Here's the grouping from one of my better series of the match:
Friday, August 11, 2017
2017 Canadian National Rifle / Pistol / Shotgun Championsips!
Canada's Top 3 10m men's finalists: Mark Hynes (silver), Allan Harding (gold), Stan Wills (bronze) |
Huge thank you's to Sarah @ URPower, Donna and Katie @ Fortius, Harvey
Up next are a couple of competitions in Ontario next month and in Manitoba in October! More details to come! Thanks for all the support and follow my journey on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Monday, February 20, 2017
2017 upcoming competitions and activities!
2016 Canadian 50m Pistol National Champion Photo: Jaclynne Mary |
This year I'm scaling back on my competition schedule to focus on a few select events. I'm also focusing on both 10m _and_ 50m. I was planning to stay focused on the 50m event but with the possible change in shooting events proposed by the ISSF I'm going to focus on both events.
The ISSF is meeting this week in New Delhi, India to go over the proposed changes to the Olympic program across all shooting disciplines. A petition was started by Bruce Quick to save the 50m event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Sadly, this is the very event I've been working towards.
Upcoming major Canadian competitions:
- Canadian Airgun Grand Prix - May 5-7, 2017
- Canadian National Pistol Championships - Jul 20 - Aug 7, 2017
I also want to give a massive thank you to BC Target Sports for some funding to help with my training and travel this year. I very much appreciate it! Thank you!!
Monday, August 1, 2016
Summer 2016 Update!
Rio... eventful World Cup. My pistol arrived with a beat up gun case, broken locks, and a grip that was all loose and out of alignment. Lots of learning happened from this event.
Munich... I shot a new personal best at an international competition shooting a 540/600 in the 50m pistol event. This felt awesome. After spending so much time training this year and having it feel like I was on a plateau and then hitting my goal score in Munich. Awesome.
I'm now near Toronto at the Pan Am Games shooting center venue to compete at the 2016 Canadian National Pistol Championships. After not spending a lot of time in the 10m event and shooting a 556/600 today I am pretty happy. Some more work needed here to get back to the 560-570 range but this year has all been about the 50m pistol event for me. Tomorrow I compete again in the 10m event. More updates to come!
Sunday, January 17, 2016
New season! Training for 2016 ISSF season is well under way!
This new year has gotten off to a great start -- unlike the speed at which I post here.. ;)
I'm a couple weeks into my 2016 training plan after taking the month of December off. I visited family, moved, and have been focused on making sure I'm on the right track going into the 2016 ISSF World Cup season.
My current plan is to compete at the World Cups hosted in Bangkok, Rio, and Munich as well as competing at the Canadian Airgun Grand Prix (April) and Canadian Nationals (TBD). I'm looking forward to all 5 of those competitions especially Rio which will be the pre-Olympic event held at the Rio 2016 shooting venue.
Canada has not been able to secure a quota spot in any men's pistol events since 1996! Time to change that!
The last Rio 2016 opportunity to secure a quota spot for Team Canada was at the Pan American Games last Summer. For me, it's all about the next 4 years and I have my sights set on Tokyo 2020!
This year I will be focused on the 50m Olympic style shooting event. It's one of the most difficult precision pistol events going back to the 19th century. Shooting has been an Olympic sport since the 1896 Olympics in Athens! The 50m event has had very few changes over the last century and it's only 1 of 2 shooting events whose targets have never changed -- most targets in other shooting events have been reduced in size over time to make it more difficult.
As a software developer, I'm always looking for ways I can leverage those skills to improve my shooting and currently I've tapped into some video game technology to study my movements, timing, follow through. Here's a sneak peek at what I'm working on:
Hacking code to get to Tokyo 2020! |
Keep in touch here or find me (@alharding) on Twitter and Instagram and I can be found on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/allanharding
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Complete results from 2013 CNPC
All of the results from the 2013 Canadian National Pistol Championships can be found on pistolcanada.ca. Here are the direct links to the 10m and 50m events I competed in. I just noticed that my BC teammate Edmond Lee and I had the most 'x' ring shots in both 10m and 50m events than anyone else!
All in all it was a great competition to be at and good for me to experience the new Finals format. Looking forward to doing some traveling with the Canadian Team in 2014!!
Taking a short break and will be back at it later this month.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Finished 2nd after qualifiers
Unfortunately after Finals I dropped down to 7th. This was my first time shooting the new Finals format which is definitely a lot more challenging than before. The format before took the top 8 shooters after the qualification relays and then added 10 more shots to their qualification total for an aggregate score. This usually resulted in few changes in the leader board. The new format however zero's out the top 8 finalists and they start over shooting 3 shots, then another 3, then 2 more with the person in last being eliminated, then 2 more shots and then another elimination. This goes on until there is only 1 person standing. Fun to watch as a spectator!
I'm definitely taking away some learnings from this event and will definitely add some "Finals" training into my schedule. It's one thing being able to go for the endurance of a full 60 shot match but it's a different beast to shoot the Finals with elimination threats after each of the 2 shot series.
The 50m event which I've been spending a bit more time is on Wed-Thu with open practice tomorrow evening. More updates to come!
Friday, August 2, 2013
At the airport on my way to Calgary
whoa.. boarding time.. more updates soon!
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Catching up on updates
I wondered what would have happened if I had left home a little earlier (or even later), would I have been right behind that car at that moment or just have driven into the lot, parked my car, and carried on to catch my flight.
The next 'off' moment came when I had finished shooting the 10m event and saw I was not going to make it out of the qualification round. I went and had lunch and dropped off my gear at the hotel. I got back to the range to watch Finals and they announced that I was in 8th position (non-Canadians had been removed from shooting in the Canadian Finals). There I was, without my equipment, and expected to shoot in about 5 minutes. I borrowed a gun I'd never shot before from Team BC's Jamie Berta. No shooting glasses, no flat soled shooting shoes, not even my competitor number to wear on my back. Uhhh. I had 8 minutes to get the gun sighted in not fully knowing which adjustment did what or by how much down range. No shooting glasses? No problem, I just squinted to block out the extra light (normally I shoot with a blinder and an almost closed iris). No competitor number? Not a problem a piece of paper, a pen, and some tape can't fix. I was definitely 'amateur hour'. I finished the Finals the best I could with a gun that didn't fit my hand... I had nothing to lose anyway, you can't drop from 8th (last in Finals) to anything lower.
If I had taken a few more seconds to look at the results maybe I wold have noticed the non-Canadians ahead of me in the standings. Maybe I would have kept my equipment with me and maybe I would have shot with my gear and maybe I could have climbed to 5th, 6th, ,or 7th.
No point trying to play the would have, could have, should have game though. It's done and I need to move forward, learn, plan, and adjust.
In the 50m event I got gold in the Sharpshooter class so that was pretty cool! Plus our Team BC (John Berta, Edmond Lee, and me) were able to snag silver in the 10m team event. Top shooting by Edmond Lee who was able to secure 3rd place in Canada in the 10m individual!
50m Gold in Sharpshooter class |
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Less than 2 weeks until Nationals in Calgary
I've been pretty busy the last 2 months since my last blog post. I took some time off and spent 2 weeks in Peru trekking to Machu Picchu (I want to go back!), I was in San Francisco a week for work, did a weekend in Las Vegas for fun and then spent some time in Portland for work. Busy!
Pretending to be doing some serious climbing. :) Machu Picchu in the background. |
Nationals are in Calgary this year and I'll be there Aug 17-20 to shoot 10m and 50m events. Stay tuned for more posts!
Friday, August 12, 2011
Results from Canadian Nationals
10M Air Pistol Men - You can find my results under the 'klasse Master' section.
After the first qualifier I was in 2nd place and 3rd going into Finals. I missed 2nd place by a single point! ;)
All other results can be found on the PistolCanada.ca website.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Back in Vancouver for a few days
The 50m event went okay. I would have liked to have shot a bit better but the scores were better than Provincials and my Finals score was better than last year. The 50m event hasn't been my main focus and a lack of nearby ranges makes it difficult to train for.
Pardini FPM, Knobloch shooting glasses, and some Fiochi ammo |
The nice thing about Nationals this year is it's all electronic. Each position has a monitor that shows all of your shots as you shoot them. You can see a shot by shot breakdown of all of the results on the Alberta Handgun Association website.
The range was really bright and I was definitely not used to that considering I rarely get out to an outdoor range, let alone when it's incredibly sunny. So I had to make a quick MacGyver modification to my shooting glasses with a piece of packaging from my ammo box and some chewing gum so I could darken my left eye blinder.
Blocking out the sun with gum and cardboard... |
I wasn't the only one who had to make some mods; my teammate Edmond Lee had problems with his Toz Free Pistol. He got 34 shots into the match before his gun broke down but was able to finish after borrowing another Toz and then my Pardini.
Results are posted right away from the shooting positions, to a laptop, to the Internet. All results can be found here: www.pistolcanada.ca. Our BC Team, consisting of Edmond Lee, John Berta and me, won Gold in the Closed Team aggregate, and I picked up a Gold in the Sharpshooter class in the 50m event.
More next week when I'm back to Calgary for the IISF 10m event.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Arrived in Calgary!
I flew in this morning and went straight to the range for equipment check and registration. I'm shooting my .22 Pardini FPM tomorrow at 9:00am and then at 1:00pm in the ISSF 50m event.
Resting up today and will post scores after Finals tomorrow afternoon. I've got a cool new Flip video camera that I'll be using to record some video from the range that I'll get online. We'll see how much time I have before I fly back to Vancouver tomorrow night. Then I'll fly back to Calgary next Thursday for the 10m event and stay a few days here in Calgary.
Go Team BC!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
A little over 5 weeks until 2011 Canadian National Pistol Championships
Provincials were last week and I finished with a 561. Complete results can be found on the BCTSA website.
I've been watching a lot of the World Cup Series 2011 highlights on the ISSF YouTube channel.
Here are highlights from the 10m Air Pistol competition in Munich:
Monday, May 2, 2011
Registered for 2011 BC Provincials and 2011 Canadian Nationals
In other news, I'm taking the first part of the NCCP coach training and certification program later this month!