Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Interview with Gorgs Geikie – Part 1

Helpful Holidays has been sponsoring the British number one Lady Pistol Shooter Georgina ‘Gorgs’ Geikie for the past year – and what a year it has been. Gorgs was part of an extremely successful shooting team at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, bringing home a coveted bronze medal – the second of her career. We caught up with Gorgs last week to get an insight into the life of a young Olympic hopeful.

“India was a great experience, the conditions and facilities were much better than had been reported before the Games. The opening ceremony was very special – the Indians put on an amazing show, with lots of fantastic colours everywhere. We sneaked a big St George’s flag into the stadium, and ended up on the cover of the next day’s Hindu Times!”

The 22 strong English Shooting Team were extremely successful in Delhi, bringing back 19 medals between them. “Team spirit was fantastic, thanks to our team manager Peter Underhill, who held regular team meetings with us to keep morale high. Conditions were very hot and humid, but there was an area with air conditioning to cool down. In any case we had already held a test event in Delhi in February so we knew what to expect.”

Georgina’s bronze medal in Delhi was won in the women’s 25m sport pistol pairs alongside her partner Julia Lydall – who was the first to congratulate her: “I had fired my last shot, and put my gun down, still in the zone. Next thing, Julia runs up to me, and points above my head – I didn’t know what she was pointing at! She shouted ‘look, look, England bronze!’ and showed me the scoreboard. I was so excited and we both jumped up and down for several minutes!”

We’ll post some more from Gorgs later this week, including some insights into her training regime and her plans for the future.

Find out more about Gorgs by visiting her website: http://www.gorgs4gold.com. You can also follow her on Twitter and Facebook.