WHITCHURCH – home to a famous silk mill, the author of iconic children’s novel Watership Down and now a world champion.

Teenager Connor Gorsuch can now call himself the best on the planet after scooping gold in the junior competition for the .410 clay pigeon shooting at the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) World Championship in Trefeglwys, Wales.

But the 17-year-old, who was defending the under-21 title he has now won four times in the past five years, also picked up the senior prize after scoring a near-perfect 49 points out of 50.

The outstanding score placed him at the top of the overall leaderboard and earned him the title of ‘Topgun’, meaning he also became senior world champion.

Connor, a student at Peter Symonds College, in Winchester, said: “I’m elated to be world champion. I’ve been working hard in training so it feels great to achieve something like this.

“It’s come through a lot of hard work, but I love shooting in training every week and I’m hoping to push on from here.”

The young sharpshooter first started training aged nine when he joined Howard Kirby’s shooting school.

He then joined Owls Lodge in Longparish at the age of 11 and has trained there every week under the watchful eye of former Olympic double-trap champion Richard Folds.

Richard, who won gold for Britain in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, has taught Connor a variety of different disciplines, including his own speciality, double-trap.

In that time, Connor has also taken extra training sessions alongside Brian Hebditch at Roundwood and John Heagren at Bisley in the hope of breaking into the national set-up.

The youngster’s plan paid off and he represented Great Britain as part of their double-trap team during the European Championship in Hungary last year, where he earned a silver medal.

His continued international success has given the newly-crowned world champion hope that he can take his skills to the biggest stage of them all – the Olympics.

“It’s been an honour to represent Great Britain in Hungary and I hope I can be involved more in the future,” he said. “I would love to shoot double trap in the Olympics and emulate Richard’s success by winning gold.”