Karen Long was top gun at the Thunderbird Fast Draw Club celebrity shootout at the Aldergrove fair on Saturday, July 16, winning the women’s celebrity shootout in her very first quick draw competition.
“It was so much fun,” enthused Long, president of Fort Langley’s B.C. Farm Museum.
Long credited coaching by Aldergrove’s Nicole Franks, winner of the B.C. fast draw championship at the fair.
Langley City mayor Val van den Broek was second, and Aldergrove Rotary Club president Jayne Pilot was third.
In the men’s celebrity shootout, councillor aide Eric Storteboom took first spot, while Langley RCMP officer Phil Colter was second.
Langley City Councillor Rudy Storteboom, Eric’s older brother, was third, happy to have outdone rival Township councillor Blair Whitmarsh.
“It [beating Whitmarsh] was something I was shooting for,” Storteboom said with a smile.
READ ALSO: VIDEO: A long-awaited return to competition by Langley quick draw champions nets trophies
Aldergrove’s John LeBlanc won the B.C. men’s fast draw championship.
Den Robinson, fair fast draw director at the Langley Rod and Gun Club, home of the Thunderbird Fast Draw Club, said after two years of events being cancelled because of the pandemic, competitors were glad to be back at it.
“It was good seeing everybody again,” Robinson told the Langley Advance Times.
About 30 competitors took part.
Previously, the fair event was host to the world quick draw championships, but that wasn’t possible this year, given the current challenges of cross-border travel, Robinson explained.
“The fair wants it back to a world’s and so do we.”
Fast draw has been described as one of the fastest sports in the world, measured from the signal to draw to when the timer is stopped.
The current World Fast Draw Association (WFDA) record for open class fast draw in an event called standing balloons is .208 seconds - and that includes the time it takes to react, draw, fire and pop a balloon target at eight feet away.
Aldergrove Fair - Constable COLTER won first place for quickest draw & shot and second place for overall score out of 5 rounds.#langley #rcmp #langleyrcmp #langleypolice #bcrcmp pic.twitter.com/BZZweP9KTd
— Langley RCMP (@LangleyRCMP) July 20, 2022
At the Aldergrove fair celebrity contest, Long was fastest woman, at .864 seconds, while RCMP officer Colter was fastest man at .520.
In the B.C. championships, Karen Robinson was fastest at .662 and Glenn Renney was the fastest man at .410.
READ ALSO: New handgun ban law bad news for Langley fast draw club
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