Kirsty Hegarty (née Barr; born 12 September 1988) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

trap shooter A trap is a mechanical device used to capture or restrain an animal for purposes such as hunting, pest control, or ecological research. Trap or TRAP may also refer to: Art and entertainment Films and television * ''Trap'' (2015 film), Fil ...

from

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

Early life

Kirsty Barr was born in

Craigavon Craigavon may refer to: * Craigavon, County Armagh, a planned town in Northern Ireland ** Craigavon Borough Council, 1972–2015 local government area centred on the planned town * Viscount Craigavon, title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom ** ...

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and ha ...

in 1988, the daughter of shooters Clifford and Sandra Barr. Kirsty attended

Ballymena Academy Ballymena Academy is a mixed gender grammar school in the market town of Ballymena in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1828 as a small provincial school for children in the town and surrounding agricultural hinterland. Admissi ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

and is an alumna of Queens University, Belfast, where she studied Aerospace Engineering.

Career

At the Commonwealth Shooting Championships (CSF) 2010, a test event for the Commonwealth Games, Kirsty secured her first international Gold medal. At the

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, f ...

Barr finished 17th in trap, and 4th in the pairs trap. At the

2010 ISSF World Shooting Championships The 50th ISSF World Shooting Championships was held in Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants ...

she finished 34th. At the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

Barr finished 6th in the trap. At the

2014 ISSF World Shooting Championships The 51st ISSF World Shooting Championships was held in Granada, Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Furt ...

she was 22nd. At the 2015 World Shotgun Championships she was 11th and at the

2017 World Shotgun Championships The 2017 World Shotgun Championships were held from August 30 to September 11, 2017 in Moscow, Russia. As in all odd-numbered years, separate ISSF World Shooting Championships is carried out in the Olympic trap, Trap, Double Trap and Olympic skeet, ...

she was 13th. As part of the Great Britain Shooting team,

British Shooting British Shooting is the national governing body for International Shooting Sport Federation, ISSF shooting sport disciplines in the United Kingdom. The organisation serves as a single shooting body to receive public funding from UK Sport and Spor ...

Kirsty Barr alongside teammates

Abbey Burton Abbey Ling ( Burton; born 30 March 1987 in High Wycombe) is a British sports shooter from Nynehead, Somerset. She married fellow Team GB sports shooter Edward Ling Edward Ling (born 7 March 1983) is an English sport shooter who repres ...

and

Charlotte Kerwood Charlotte Hollands ( née Kerwood, born 15 September 1986) is a British sports shooter. She won her first Commonwealth Gold medal at the age of 15 at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. In 2015 World Championship, she was part of the British team that ...

won team Gold at the 2015 World Shotgun Championships, Lonato. In 2016 Barr qualified for her first ISSF final in Baku, scoring 71ex75 in qualification. Barr finished 6th in the final. Barr won a silver medal at the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

in the women's trap event. Also in 2018, Barr continued her success to win Silver in the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

in the women's trap. And in the team event was part of the GB ladies team that finished 4th losing out to Finland who secured the bronze medal. In the

2018 ISSF World Shooting Championships The 52nd ISSF World Shooting Championships were held in Changwon, South Korea from 2 to 14 September 2018. This also served as first qualification for 2020 Summer Olympics. Medal summary Senior Medal table Men Women Mixed Junior Due to ...

in South Korea, Kirsty along with shooting partner

Aaron Heading Aaron Heading (born 21 May 1987) is a clay-pigeon shooter, specialising in the Trap discipline. He represents England and Great Britain. In 2010 Heading earned selection for the England shooting team for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi fr ...

, fought their way to a Bronze medal in the Mixed Team Trap event losing Silver to Russia on back number and missing out on a quota place for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. In

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Barr, along with

Matthew Coward-Holley Matthew Coward-Holley (born 14 December 1994) is a British sport shooter. Coward-Holley was a promising rugby player as a teenager but two serious back injuries involving broken vertebrae ended his playing. In order to remain active, he turned t ...

, won a Bronze in the Mixed Team Trap event in Acapulco, Mexico. Barr's form continued into the Al Ain stage of the

2019 ISSF World Cup The 2019 ISSF World Cup is the annual edition of the ISSF World Cup in the Olympic shooting events, governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation. The World Cup series also acted as the qualification tournaments for the 2020 Olympic Games ...

where she secured Silver Medal and an Olympic Quota Place for Team GB for the 2020 Olympics. On 13th January 2021 Team GB announced Hegarty would be competing in the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Hegarty was the first confirmed Northern Ireland Olympian for the 2020 games. While not on the range Kirsty is an Aerospace Engineer for

Bombardier Aerospace Bombardier Aviation is a division of Bombardier Inc. It is headquartered in Dorval, Quebec, Canada. Its most popular aircraft included the Dash 8 Series 400, CRJ100/200/440, and CRJ700/900/1000 lines of regional airliners, and the newer CS ...

, Shorts based in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Personal life

Kirsty Barr is an

aerospace engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

. In September 2016 Kirsty married Stephen Hegarty from

Donegal Town Donegal ( ; , "fort of the foreigners") is a town in County Donegal, Ireland. The name was also historically spelt 'Dunnagall'. Although Donegal gave its name to the county, now Lifford is the county town. From the 15th until the early 17th ce ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barr, Kirsty 1988 births Living people Shooters at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Shooters at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Shooters at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Female sport shooters from Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games medallists in shooting Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Northern Ireland Trap and double trap shooters European Games competitors for Great Britain Shooters at the 2019 European Games Shooters at the 2020 Summer Olympics British female sport shooters