I shouldn’t be winning what I am at my age, says world champ

The Northiam-based shooting great has won three World Championships in 2015 to take his career tally to an amazing 26, despite having turned 51.

What’s more, the remarkable Digweed is still ranked number one in the world in two different disciplines.

“I’m just entering the twilight of my career and I shouldn’t be winning what I’m winning with the degree of regularity that I am because I’m just too old for it really,” he said.

“It’s not an old man’s game, although experience does count for a little bit. I’m able to use a little bit of knowledge that I’ve got over the last few years and put it to good use.

“It’s learning to read angles. I think you need a certain amount of experience to read them in the first place and once you’ve learnt them, it’s remembering them.

“You’ve got to have good hand-eye co-ordination, and if you’ve got all those attributes and you’ve got a sound technique, there’s no reason why you can’t keep going and that’s probably why I’m doing what I’m doing.”

Although many of his fellow competitors would no doubt love to see Digweed retire, he has no plans to hang up his gun just yet. And why would he given his continued success?

Digweed recently triumphed at the World Fitasc Championships in Minnesota having also been victorious at the World Sporting Championships and the World Compak Championships earlier this year.

“Who knows how long I can keep going,?” he went on. “I’m going to keep going all the time I can. I’ve just signed a new four-year deal with Perazzi, my main gun sponsor, and I’m probably shooting as well now as at any point in my career.

“It’s a very good adage that form is temporary and class is permanent. I think all good sportsmen - in whatever sport - go through highs and lows. I’m just lucky that at the moment I’m in a period of high.”

In another amazing statistic, Digweed has won World Championships in four different decades. His first victory came way back in 1988.

Despite all he’s achieved, outside of shooting circles Digweed is far from a household name - something which he puts down to succeeding in a ‘politically incorrect’ sport and one which is ‘hard to televise’.

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, Digweed plans to contest the British Championship at the end of the month and another World Championship, this time in a sporting discipline, in South Africa during October.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make this website your homepage

2 Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/pages/Sport-Sussex

3 Follow us on Twitter @SportSussex

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!