Australia shooters are heading home with two big prizes after a fortnight of world-level competition in New Zealand.
The Australian team won the world long range target shooting championships title, collecting the Palma Trophy on Sunday after an intense competition at the Trentham range near Upper Hutt.
Their triumph followed Sydney shooter Jim Bailey's victory in the 2019 Ballinger Belt New Zealand championships at Trentham on February 2.
New Zealand finished fifth in the Palma Trophy event.
Trentham's Seddon range - known worldwide for its changing wind conditions - lived up to that reputation on both days.
During the Saturday morning session, when teams shot on the 800 and 900 yards range, the moderate winds came from behind the shooters making them take long pauses between shots. In the afternoon session the winds gusts the dropped and started again.
It is an unusual sport where some top shooters - known as "wind whisperers" - shoot throughout the rest of the event but give up their spot in the team event so they can share their talent to help coach their team to a win.
Teams of 16 shooters from seven countries - Great Britain, Channel Isles, Canada, USA, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand - competed over 800, 900 and 1000 yard ranges, with one round on Saturday and another on Sunday to produce a winning team.
Each competitor had 15 shots on each range length
After the first two range shoots on Saturday morning over 800 and 900 yards the Australian team led by USA in second place and Great Britain third. The NZ team were in fifth place.
Australian had built on their lead in the afternoon session.
Australia's Mitch Bailey - son of Ballinger Belt winner Jim Bailey - had a near-perfect shooting day with a maximum 225 base points out 225 and added 30 centre bull shots out of a maximum of 45 and was the individual highest scored .
Australia had six team members in the top 10, alongside two United States and two Great Britain shooters.
Brandon Green (USA) won the highest individual score across all six shoots.
Great Britain overtook USA on day two to finish in second place.
The Palma Trophy finale brought to an end over two weeks of international target shooting by nearly 400 competitors .
The next Palma team shoot and world champs will be in South Africa in 2023.
New Zealand last hosted the event in 1995.