Despite finishing the lowest qualifier for the final Willett emerged victorious scoring consecutive title wins in the Commonwealth and National titles at the Newcastle Lake Macquarie Clay Target Club recently.
With a score of 45/50 Willett defeated Italy’s Angelo Scalzone 44/50 in the Olympic nomination event.
Willlet said he was pleased to come away with the win.
“It’s one of the hardest venues to shoot at,” Willett said.
He was disappointed with his second qualifying round score after choosing to wear a darker pair of glasses.
“I chose the wrong pair of glasses for the conditions and it was a bad round for me.”
Now on a total of 248 points, the 2016 Rio Olympic Games representative opened up a handy four-point lead over Thomas Grice in the race to be nominated for this year’s Tokyo Olympic Games Australian shooting team.
There are now two remaining nomination events before Olympic selection is confirmed, the Yarra Valley Open on February 27-March 1 and the Shooting Australia Open on March 18-22.
“I am obviously pleased that I have a lead now heading into the next two selection events for the games, all of the training has paid off over the Christmas period as I headed into the nationals,” Willett said.
“Now I am just working towards completing our full Olympic trap range on the farm and preparing for the following event which will be held at Melbourne Gun Club on the last weekend of February.
“Thank you also to my local sponsors for their continued support; CMCU, Yarrawonga/Cobram Toyota and Hargraves Secured Investments.”
National Performance Director Adam Sachs said athletes register scores in qualifying at each of the four events, but only the best three qualifying scores (and any finals points attached to those performances) will count towards their nomination rankings.
“The Olympic nomination process rewards consistently strong performances in both qualification and finals across the four events. However, an athlete’s worst result based on qualifying score only will be disregarded,” Mr Sachs said.
At the end of the nomination events, a panel of selectors will meet to determine which athletes will be nominated to the AOC for selection in accordance with Shooting’s Olympic Nomination Criteria.
“As part of these deliberations, the panel will consider whether or not it will exercise its right to change a maximum of one quota place in one event for one quota place in an any other event within the same gender.
“We may exercise this right if we believe the change is likely to improve the chances of shooting and the Australian Olympic team winning a medal in Tokyo,” he added.