At next year?s Commonwealth Games, a familiar name hopes to be joining stars such as Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah in the England team.
Step forward, Mel Sykes. That?s right, she of Boddingtons beer advertising fame.
After taking up clay pigeon shooting, the model-turned-presenter is gunning for another reincarnation as a sportswoman.
Having secured her gun licence and with a world champion coach on board, Mel?s ambition does not end with competing at next summer?s Commonwealths in Glasgow.
Ultimately, she wants to represent Team GB at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Reloading her gun at the West London Shooting School, the 42-year-old newlywed says: ?I?m really serious about this.?
Mel, who is entering her first competition next month, adds: ?My father-in-law has been shooting for years ? he does game and everything ? and is all quite serious about it. While my husband has been doing it since he was a child.
?I?ve always wanted to do it but thought it was an elitist sport, only for really posh people.
"It can be quite intimidating when everyone is in their tweeds and there I was in the early days, rocking up in a leather jacket.
?I love being fit but until now darts and snooker have been the only things I?ve been any good at.
?I have genuinely never found anything in my life I love as much as this. I?m passionate about it.
?In the build-up to my wedding, I was dreaming about shooting clays more than the day itself.
"I was pretty much picturing me more in my tweed jacket than in my wedding dress.?
IAN VOGLER
?The wedding ? to roofer Jack Cockings ? was in May, and as happy as she is to discuss her good-looking husband, Mel is clearly far more interested in chatting about firearms than men.
Seven months ago, she fired her first rifle when Jack, 27, took her to a range near his family home in Dorset.
After tweeting about her interest in the sport, she was put in contact with London 2012 double trap gold medallist Peter Wilson, who gave her a lesson, while a company called Gamebore provided her with kit.
Lancashire-born Mel was hooked. She is delighted to have acquired multi-world champ Ben Husthwaite as her full-time coach.
And she could not be happier about her other acquisition ? her new husband.
Let?s Do Lunch presenter Mel met Jack through Twitter. After striking up a dialogue through private messages over several months, Jack eventually asked her out on a date.
The rest, as they say, is social media history, culminating in their picturesque wedding at Sherborne Castle in Dorset in front of 100 friends and family.
Second time around ? her first marriage to Italian actor Daniel Caltagirone ended in divorce in 2009 ? Melanie was
decidedly calmer.
So calm in fact that she spent the morning of the ceremony filling in her tax returns. ?The day before the wedding I was not relaxed at all though,? she admits.
?I was laughing one minute, crying the next. Totally up and down. I just didn?t recognise myself. I guess I had the wedding wobbles, like everyone else.
?It was weird purely because I hadn?t had them at all up until that point.
?But then I woke up in the morning and I was fine again. Jack and I were dead excited and needed to be together so we didn?t do that whole, spending the night before the wedding apart thing. Does anyone even do that any more? We just wanted to hang out together.
?The sun was out on the morning and I felt dead relaxed. But then I remembered I had my tax returns which needed doing by the Monday ? and I figured I couldn?t really sit there and fill them out on my wedding night.
"So I got out all my receipts, all my envelopes, and sat there doing them. I was shooing everyone away who came in to talk to me ?cos I was so busy.
?But, yes, that?s how relaxed I was about the whole thing, how right it all felt.?
As we talk at a coaching session at the shooting school in Northolt, relaxed is a word which seems to entirely sum Mel up. And having seen her hit clay after clay, it?s my turn.
And, so, water pistols aside, having never fired a gun in 31 years, I find myself putting on sunglasses and fetching a pair of bright orange earplugs for a lesson.
Ben explains I must wait until the clay is at the peak of its arc before firing and must use my core to ensure the gun?s three-tonne recoil doesn?t snap off my right shoulder. Excellent.
After missing my practice attempt ? with Ben actually aiming the gun for me ? I manage to hit a couple of the flighty little things... and can see how Mel got addicted. ?Clay pigeon shooting is psychologically really tough,? she explains.
?I will naturally beat myself up when I make a mistake, saying ?Oh, you stupid cow? instead of just letting it go.
"I rip myself to bits ? I need to stop doing that. It?s like any sport, though, you have a physical and mental coach.
?Sometimes, when I miss continuously, I almost want to cry. I?m so deflated, so angry, totally beating myself up. But it?s just training.
?It?s the Commonwealth Games next year so that?s the first huge aim. When you?re doing a sport seriously, everyone wants to compete on that major stage.
?Having said that, I know I?m still such a baby in the sport... but that doesn?t dampen my ambition.?
The superfit star has been noticed by several sponsors via Twitter. Which, as Mel jokes, ?is always how it happens with me?.
But while her new career and her marriage may have had unconventional starts, Mel was the same as many other brides when her wedding came along with a last-minute hitch.
Days before the nuptials, and with the menu and wedding reception all sorted, the couple?s caterers pulled out.
BIG
Frantic, Mel was forced to pull in a favour from celebrity chef Andrew Nutter, who she had previously worked alongside on daytime television.
Mel explains: ?We got let down very late in the day by somebody who was booked to do the catering.
?I knew Andrew from a show I did 16 years ago, when I presented the fashion slot and he was the resident chef.
?I rang him and basically begged. Although he doesn?t do weddings, he did it as a favour for me.
?It was absolutely brilliant though. We had three-tiered fruits de mer platters as a starter which was my idea. We gave everyone bibs so they could all get messy and sharing ? it really got people bonding.
?In fact, people were talking about the food more than anything else. But you want that ? it was pretty spesh.?
As is living with the mum-of-two?s new husband. ?Married life is really good,? she smiles.
?It?s been about eight weeks now and I am very, very happy. It doesn?t really feel any different being married ? nothing has changed at all. But I just wanted to do it for us, really. It felt right.
?The honeymoon was in Mexico which was wonderful. We just stayed in one place, and literally lay on the sun lounger for 12 days. It was so nice.
?But as soon as we came home it was ?work, work, work? for both of us. All that build-up for one day, and then it?s over.?
For Mel, the wedding may be over but married life ? and a new career ? have only just begun.
View gallery Melanie Sykes 43rd Birthday Career In Pictures
View gallery ??
Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/melanie-sykes-wedding-jack-cockings-2068451
Stacie Halas Corvette Stingray Claire Danes Amy Poehler Australian Open Girls Hbo Golden Globes
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.