Ben Llewellin: Skeet shooter targets World Championship medal and Paris Olympics spot
- Published
Welsh shooter Ben Llewellin aims to defend his world mixed skeet shooting title with partner Amber Rutter
Ben Llewellin says he will be "disappointed" not to win a medal at the skeet shooting World Championships in Baku this weekend.
Commonwealth silver medallist Llewellin, 29, is currently ranked 13th in the world and has finished fifth and sixth at World Cups this year.
The skeet shooter from Haverfordwest starts his individual campaign on Thursday.
"Baku is a range I really look forward to," said Llewellin.
"It's one I've always done quite well at, so my hopes are high and I'm really looking forward to it.
"The conditions are always nice. When you're from Pembrokeshire and always shooting in the wind and rain, it's always quite nice to go somewhere and shoot in the sun and no wind."
Brother's inspiration
Llewellin's father David was a successful rally driver and he admits rallying may have been the path he would have taken, had it not been for sibling rivalry.
"It was actually my older brother, he was a keen clay shooter before me, I was interested in rugby basically," admitted Llewellin.
Ben Llewellin was runner-up in the skeet competition at the 2018 Commonwealth games in Gold Coast
"He was bringing home these shiny trophies and dotting them round his bedroom.
"That's the thing that really got me intrigued about the sport, being able to go out there and win a trophy for yourself and not as a team basically and have that trophy in your bedroom.
"I liked the discipline of skeet and then I had a coach come up to me and introduce me to Olympic skeet and he went on to say that I could go onto Commonwealth and Olympic Games, that was a trigger, and my goals were set on what I wanted to achieve in the sport."
Speaking to BBC Sport Wales back in 2017 Llewellin said he had been left "disheartened and not sure what to do with himself" after missing out on qualification for the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
Later in 2017 he would break a world record before going on to win silver at the 2018 Gold Coast Games.
Now in 2023, having missed out on Tokyo 2020 qualification in a shoot off, he is hoping to qualify for next year's Paris Olympics and will guarantee his place with a top four finish at the World Championships.
"I'm in a very similar position now as I was a couple of years back and going off what happened back then, I went on to the next Commonwealth Games and achieved a silver medal," said Llewellin.
"I think my prep for this World Championships has been based very much on individual performance and doing the best I can, which I know I can medal and then the Olympic qualification, the quota places, is just going to be a by-product of me competing well at this competition.
"I think I can achieve a medal at this next one [Olympics], obviously I was very disappointed to miss out on Tokyo, but those disappointments and setbacks are just fuel to the fire for me going forward."
Competition uncertainty
Within the mixed team, he and teammate Amber Rutter (née Hill) are current World and European champions but that does not guarantee them a spot at next year's Olympics.
"The mixed team is a little bit of a grey area at the moment because you used to be able to qualify as a mixed team on its own, whereas now it's all on qualifying both individually," said Llewellin.
"I'm not sure how that'll all unfold over the next 12 months but I'm hoping we will have an opportunity to compete at the Olympics, both individually and as a mixed team."
While skeet shooting is assured for Paris 2024 there remains uncertainty regarding its inclusion in future Commonwealth Games after it was omitted from Birmingham 2022 and would also have been absent from Victoria 2026 before they pulled out of hosting.
"It's quite nice to know what competitions you've got coming up, so going into this next period of my career, not really knowing if we're going to be in the Commonwealths or not, it would be quite nice to have some clarity for sure," said Llewellin.
"Missing out on the Birmingham games and then skeet shooting wasn't included in Victoria so hopefully this is a blessing in disguise for skeet shooting.
""I hope it'll give skeet shooting an opportunity to get a foot back in the door.
"India are huge supporters of shooting in general so hopefully they will bring skeet back."
Llewellin took a month off from shooting in May, not touching a gun to avoid becoming burnt out from a season which started in January and ends in the autumn.
When training Llewellin regularly shoots 1000 to 1500 clays per week at the range he built at his father's farm. The hours of training may not be to everyone's liking but for Llewellin the rush of competing is like no other.
"I think it's one of those sports where you get so much satisfaction, not only from breaking a clay but to be in a competition environment where you're rubbing shoulders with the best of the world," he said.
"We see it quite a lot at the shooting ground. We have youngsters come up and as soon as they break their first clay you can see their faces light up and they're like 'wow', the adrenaline buzz you get from breaking a clay is something everyone should try out."