Veteran target shooter Tony Cogan (59), a veteran of Irish Olympic Target Shooting, showed yet again today the steadiness of aim and mental focus which he has shown time and again over the past twenty-five years of his sporting career, winning the National Indoor Smallbore Rifle Championships, held today at the Rathdrum Rifle Club in Co.Wicklow.
Tony, a postal worker from Tallagh, who represented Ireland at international competitions for tweny years before his retirement from international competition three years ago, scored 583 (out of 600) tying for first place with Sandy Wilson, also a veteran international shooter. However, upon re-scoring the targets, the decision fell to Tony.
"I'm delighted to have won the championships", Tony said, "But while it's nice to see some young shooters here like the ones from Trinity College, we aren't seeing enough of them enter the sport at the moment, mainly because it's difficult to find a place to train. Hopefully that will soon be fixed, and then we'll see the junior side of the sport take off"
Sandy Wilson took the silver medal after losing the tie-breaker for first place, and Leslie Fagan took the bronze.
The scores were as follows:
| National Indoor Smallbore Rifle Championships 2004 | |||||||||||||||
| No. | Competitor | Club | Class | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Total | Av | O/A | Best 4 | Class | |
| Place | Place | ||||||||||||||
| 8 | Tony Cogan | DRC | A | 98 | 99 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 95 | 583 | 97.17 | 1 | 392 | 2A | |
| 11 | Sandy Wilson | FSC | A | 100 | 96 | 98 | 100 | 96 | 93 | 583 | 97.17 | 2 | 394 | 1A | |
| 10 | Leslie Fagan | WTSC | A | 97 | 96 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 97 | 578 | 96.33 | 3 | 387 | 3A | |
| 7 | P.J. Harding | DRC | A | 96 | 96 | 96 | 91 | 96 | 97 | 572 | 95.33 | 4 | 385 | ||
| 1 | Kealan Symes | RRPC | B | 94 | 95 | 93 | 98 | 90 | 99 | 569 | 94.83 | 5 | 386 | 1B | |
| 5 | Michael Madigan | DURC | D | 94 | 96 | 94 | 95 | 93 | 96 | 568 | 94.67 | 6 | 381 | 1D | |
| 12 | Brendan Byrne | RRPC | C | 94 | 95 | 94 | 96 | 95 | 93 | 567 | 94.50 | 7 | 380 | 1C | |
| 2 | John Carroll | RRPC | A | 95 | 95 | 94 | 95 | 87 | 100 | 566 | 94.33 | 8 | 385 | ||
| 9 | Dave Trumper | RRPC | B | 94 | 92 | 93 | 95 | 90 | 95 | 559 | 93.17 | 9 | 377 | 2B | |
| 3 | Conor McDermottroe | DURC | B | 89 | 94 | 96 | 93 | 90 | 92 | 554 | 92.33 | 10 | 375 | 3B | |
| 4 | Peter Daynes | DURC | D | 86 | 89 | 82 | 88 | 82 | 89 | 516 | 86.00 | 11 | 352 | 2D | |
| 6 | Patsy Tyrrell | RRPC | C | DNS | |||||||||||
| Split for 1st Championship - 1st graduated gauge | |||||||||||||||
| 8 | Tony Cogan | DRC | 92 | 98 | 93 | 95 | 95 | 91 | 564 | 1st | |||||
| 11 | Sandy Wilson | FSC | 94 | 93 | 95 | 94 | 94 | 89 | 559 | 2nd | |||||