Natalie Foss hopes to continue her form into the junior world champs. Photo: Supplied
Fresh off a world title, Piopio shooter Natalie Foss is now turning her attention to the ISSF Junior World Championships in Germany next month.
The 21-year-old claimed the 2026 Universal Trench Ladies World Championship in Melbourne in February, shooting a personal best score of 190/200 to secure the biggest win of her career.
With her third and final appearance at the junior worlds in Suhl in Germany beginning on June 22, Foss is deep into preparations for the trench event, as she balances international competition with the final year of her commerce degree in Christchurch.
The former Aria School and Piopio College student has been spending a lot of her preparation for Germany travelling south to train in Timaru on a trench range with the support of New Zealand Olympic silver medallist Natalie Rooney.
The upcoming championships will see competitors shoot 125 targets across three days before finals. Foss is focused more on consistency than results.
“I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be a good trip. I’m looking forward to shooting some more targets on the world stage, because we don’t really get to do that a whole lot down in little old New Zealand,” Foss said.
“I don’t really have expectations on the outcome of the shoot. If I can stay consistent at a nice level or a nice score, then I would be pretty happy,” she said.
Germany will mark Foss’ third junior world championships campaign. She previously represented New Zealand in Croatia in 2022 and Peru in 2024.
Her recent form suggests she will head to Germany with confidence, having won the ladies ball trap and handicap titles at the Down The Line (DTL) nationals in Christchurch, as well as taking out the A-grade ball trap title since returning from Australia.
She later became the number one qualifier for the New Zealand second ladies’ team at the DTL World Championships, also held in Christchurch.
Foss first picked up a shotgun in 2019 during a Guy Fawkes gathering with family friends, and her natural ability quickly caught the attention of her coach-to-be John Petriella.
“He handed me a .410 and I think I hit maybe six or seven out of 10,” Foss said.
“He looked at me and Dad and goes, ‘Who’s taught you how to shoot?’ That was the first time I picked up a shotgun,” she said.
Petriella then spent the next year and a half teaching Foss the fundamentals of the sport, in which time she began shooting competitively in early 2020.
Although an Olympic campaign remains a long-term ambition, Foss said her focus remains on steady progress.
“I’d like to think so that I’d be part of (the next Olympics), but I’m taking it one step at a time and looking at what I can do in the next six months,” Foss said.
“If I’m close next year, then that’s awesome, but if I’m not, there’s always 2032.”
Natalie Foss hopes to continue her form into the junior world champs. Photo: Supplied
