British shooters will get their first shot at Olympic qualification at the ISSF World Championship in Doha this November.
A total of 18 athletes will represent Great Britain in Qatar, with representatives from 90 countries competing across 42 disciplines.
Of those, there are 12 Olympic events, all of which offer three quota spots for Olympic Games qualification, making these championships the single biggest opportunity to book a spot in Los Angeles in 2028.
Britain will be represented across shotgun, rifle, and pistol. Here’s who you need to know.
Seonaid McIntosh
At just 24-years-old, Seonaid McIntosh became Britain’s most successful female rifle shooter of all time.
She had won two medals at the 2018 World Championships, including a gold in the 50m rifle prone, and another two medals at the 2019 World Cup Final, one of which was gold.
Now 30, McIntosh’s hunger for silverware remains undimmed. A remarkable seven more World Cup gold medals have gone her way since 2023, and her CV boasts medals across European and Commonwealth level too.
A former world number one in the 50m rifle three positions event and an equal world record holder in the 300m rifle prone event, McIntosh was the only British medallist at the World Championship last year, taking bronze in the 50m rifle three positions on her return to the sport after a year out.
The Scot has a degree in Electronic Engineering and her parents were also both successful shooters.
Nathan Hales
In 2024, Nathan Hales announced himself to the British public by shooting an Olympic record of 48/50 score to secure an Olympic gold medal, beating China’s Qi Ying by four points.
The Kent native had enjoyed plenty of success on the ISSF circuit, winning three medals at the 2022 World Championships in Osijek and a European title at the same venue a year later.
The trap shooter (shotgun) broke the world record in Lonato on the ISSF World Cup circuit in 2023, which ensured his qualification for the Paris Games in 2024.
The 30-year-old will go for gold in the men’s trap and trap mixed team alongside Lucy Hall.
Amber Rutter
Another shooter with a medal record longer than your arm, Amber Rutter became Britain’s most successful athlete at ISSF World Cup events in 2022 when she won a silver in Changwon, South Korea.
Rutter, who competed under her maiden name Hill until 2023, has competed at two Olympic Games. In 2024, she won a silver medal in the women’s skeet just three months after giving birth to her son Tommy, missing out on gold to Chilean Francisca Crovetto.
The 29-year-old has two World and five European Championship titles, all won in skeet shooting, where athletes use shotguns to break clay targets propelled from two fixed stations.
Rutter gave birth to her second child and son, Jey, in October 2025.
Aaron Heading
He may be one of the older heads travelling to Doha, but Aaron Heading is still a strong contender for the Olympic trap men’s title at 39 years old.
The Norfolk man won Commonwealth gold all the way back in 2010 and has been a regular medallist ever since, taking silver at further Commonwealths in 2014 and 2018.
After making his Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, he was part of the trap team to win gold at the 2022 World and 2023 European Championships, and earned an individual silver in the 2019 Europeans in Lonato del Garda, Italy.
And this October, he proved he was still at the top of the sport with another individual medal at the Europeans, this time a bronze in Athens. He could be one to watch in Qatar.
Bethany Norton
In March, 19-year-old Bethany Norton won her first senior competition in the women’s skeet at the ISSF World Cup in Tangier, Morocco.
The Newcastle University student outclassed Olympic and world medallists in the field to set a new junior world record in the process.
Norton also led a British one-two ahead of Phoebe Bodley-Scott at the Junior World Championships in Suhl.
She will compete in the Olympic skeet women event alongside Rutter, with her sights firmly set on participating in Los Angeles in 2028.
Sportsbeat 2026