Bruce McMillan

Bruce McMillan, born in Lower Hutt in 1942, had a long career stretching back to the 1960s as a rapid fire pistol shooter, but the highpoint was the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games.

McMillan won a bronze medal in Christchurch after an exciting, see-sawing contest.

There were 17 entries in the event, which was eventually won by Rev Bill Hare of Canada, from another Canadian, Dr Julies Sobrian. Going into his last round, McMillan still had an outside hope of winning the gold medal, but could alsoeasily have emerged with no medal at all.

After the first half of the contest, Hare, who began sensationally, had 298 points, to lead from Sobrian and 1966 Games champion Tony Clark of England on 291, with McMillan on 290 and John Cooke of England and Ken Stanford of Northern Ireland on 289. Hare seemed secure, with half a dozen others disputing the silver and bronze.

But in the second half, Hare faltered. He had a disastrous final round, when he managed only 44 of a possible 50. Sobrian and McMillan had still to shoot and if McMillan could record a possible 50 he would draw level with Hare, a situation that had seemed unthinkable earlier.

As it transpired, Sobrian, a double medallist at the 1966 Commonwealth Games, came through well when it counted with a 48 to secure the silver medal and McMillan’s 45 was just enough to hold on to bronze, ahead of Cooke. Clark, who’d looked so strong initially, fell away dramatically when the pressure went on.

The finally tally was Hare 586, Sobrian 583 and McMillan 581.

McMillan had one more crack at the Commonwealth Games, at Edmonton in 1978, where he managed 573 points for 7th place in a contest won by the consistent Sobrian with 587.

Overall, McMillan responded well to the pressure in the later stages in Christchurch. Perhaps he benefited from attending a world championship and, even more importantly, having competed at the 1972 Munich Olympics, when he became the first New Zealander to represent his country in pistol shooting at an Olympics.

At Munich, his total of 582 points in the 25-metre pistol event placed him 28th of the 62 competitors. The gold was won by Poland’s Józef Zapedzki with an Olympic record of 595.

Those Olympics had wide-ranging security consequences for future shooting competitors. The Black September Palestinian massacre of 11 Israeli competitors took place only 50 metres from where McMillan was staying in the men-only section of the Games village.

“The atmosphere at the Games was absolutely fantastic for a start. It was a summer festival of sport,” McMillan said. By the time the Olympics were halfway through, McMillan had already competed.

But following the massacre, memorials took place in the Olympic Village and the airbase at Füstenfeldbruck, where the hostage situation came to a head. “It was a terrible. The rest of the Games was an anti-climax.”

Some New Zealanders were sent home early and McMillan felt the attack most likely affected the performances of the remaining athletes.

For competitive shooters, security was heightened from that point on and McMillan said the ability to carry competition guns was restricted. “Carrying your own gun became difficult, or problematic.”

At Christchurch two years later there were strict rules placed around gun access and storage. “It was all an absolute waste of time because we [competitive shooters] are not the problem.”

After his international commitments wound down, McMillan moved into shooting administration with the New Zealand Pistol Association. He lived in Whanganui.