Britain's Paralympic shooters claimed one silver and three bronze medals at the Open European Championships in Germany.

The European Championships took place in conjunction with the Open Championships, which saw 16 non-European countries also take part.

Di Coates won silver in the European women's 10m R2 air rifle event, bettering her bronze of two years ago.

Newcomer James Bevis took bronze in both the Open and European rankings in the R5 mixed 10m air rifle.

Bevis, in only his third international event and first European Championships, shot a lifetime best - a perfect 600 score - to lead the field into the finals.

He had to endure a shoot-off against two other shooters, including Athens 2004 Paralympic Games gold medallist Minna Leinonen, at the end of the 10-shot final before eventually taking bronze.

There was also a medal for Karen Butler, who took bronze in the European R8 Sport Rifle .22 - finishing sixth in the Open championship rankings.

Nathan Milgate and Matthew Skelhon both shot a Minimum Qualification Score (MSQ) in the men's standing 10m air rifle R1 event.

Milgate then just missed out on the finals in the R3 10m air rifle mixed prone with his score of 598.

As a result of these achievements the following athletes James Bevis, Karen Butler, Deanna Coates and Nathan Milgate have been selected to represent GB at the Oceania Games in Sydney from 28th Oct – 3rd Nov2007. This competition is the final international qualifying event in which athletes can obtain MQS scores in order to be considered for selection to Beijing 2008.

Karen Butler would like to thanks SUDS for their sponsorship.

Karen Butler