Burrows second in international collegiate shooting competition

Brian Burrows took second place in the World University Shooting Sport Championship men’s trap competition Sept. 5 to 6 in Kazan, Russia.

“I’m happy to bring home the silver, but at the same time I could have done better,” Burrows said.

Not including two tiebreaking shoot offs in which Burrows hit all six targets during those two rounds, he was successful on 139 of his 150 shots. Burrows was also part of a three-person United States contingent which took fourth place in the team competition.

The Burrows family moved to Fallbrook in 1998, and Burrows’ family still lives in Fallbrook. Burrows was homeschooled until spending eighth grade at Potter Junior High School and then four years at Fallbrook High School, from which he graduated in 2007. Burrows spent 3 1/2 years as a resident of the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs before returning to San Diego County in late August. “Now is the perfect time to get my education done,” he said.

Burrows had been taking classes at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs (UCCS), where he was a business marketing major. He will likely return to the Olympic Training Center prior to the 2016 Olympic Games, but he currently lives in the Ocean Beach area of San Diego and attends Mesa College in San Diego, where he is also focusing on business marketing. A competitor must be taking at least nine units to qualify for the World University Shooting Sport Championship, and Burrows was attending UCCS when he signed up for the collegiate shooting championship.

Burrows will continue to shoot as he accumulates college credits. “I’ll definitely be at all the big competitions and still training, just more on the weekends instead of every day,” he said.

The World University Shooting Sport Championship began with three rounds of 25 shots each on Sept. 5. Burrows hit all 25 targets during the first round. “The first round went really well,” he said.

Burrows actually hit his first 49 targets before missing his final second-round target to settle for 24 targets that round. He also hit 24 targets during the third round, and his three-round total of 73 successful shots shared first place with Russia’s Denis Zotov and Czech shooter Jan Privara after the first day of competition.

Burrows began Sept. 6 by hitting 23 targets in the fourth round. His other Sept. 6 round resulted in 21 hits. “The second round I was really shaky in the beginning,” he said. “A little disappointing with that 21 my last round.”

The fifth round would turn out not to be his last round. Six shooters advanced to the finals. Valerio Grazini of Italy and Andreas Makri of Cyprus each hit 119 of their 125 targets, Zotov and Julius Vass of Slovakia each had 118 successful shots, and Burrows was one of four shooters with 117 hit targets.

The four shooters with 117 hits competed in a shootoff for the final two positions. Australia’s Joshua Collard missed his second target during the shootoff, and when Russia’s Viktor Vasichkin missed his fifth target Burrows and Privara advanced to the finals. The scores from the first five rounds carried over to the finals, so Burrows and Privara were two targets behind Grazini and Makri and one successful shot behind Zotov and Vass.

Grazini hit 24 targets in the finals for a total of 143 successful shots. Burrows hit 22 of his 25 targets while Makri hit 20 targets, giving both a share of second place with 139 hit targets. Privara hit 20 targets in the finals while Zotov hit his target 19 times Vass had 17 successful shots.

The result forced Burrows and Makri into a shootoff for the silver medal. Burrows hit his target on his first attempt while Makri missed.

Russia won the team competition followed by Italy, Cyprus, the United States, and the Czech Republic. Burrows’ teammates hit 116 and 108 targets in five rounds.

“I would just like to thank my family and friends for all the support and God for giving me all these opportunities to travel and compete,” Burrows said.