Birth name Minett Height 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in) Country United Kingdom Residence Gosport, United Kingdom | Nationality British Website lcm400.co.uk Club Fareham | |
Born 1975 (age 41–42) Bicester, England Events 10 meter air rifle, 50 meter rifle three positions, 50 meter rifle prone | ||
Louise Minett (born 1975), later known by her married name Louise Richards is a British sports shooter who won 6 medals whilst representing England at the Commonwealth Games and represented Great Britain at multiple ISSF World Cups, World Shooting Championships and ESC European Shooting Championships.
Career
At the 1994 Commonwealth Games, she competed in the 10metre Air Rifle Pairs event, winning the Silver medal with Karen Morton. This was the first of 6 Commonwealth Games medals that she would win between 1994 and 2006. In Kuala Lumpur 1998 she took the Bronze medals in both the 10metre Air Rifle Singles and the Pairs (paired with Rebecca Spicer). She repeated the same feat (paired with Victoria Eaton) at Manchester 2002. In 2006, Louise finally collected Gold this time in the 50metre 3 Position Rifle Pairs with Rebecca Spicer.
During her career, Minett represented Great Britain at four World Shooting Championships with a best finish of 18th. She also represented at 21 ISSF World Cups with four top-10 finishes in addition to a silver AR40 medal at the 1999 Atlanta World Cup. That medal qualified her for the 1999 World Cup Final in Munich where she finished 9th, missing out on a place in the 8-athlete final. She also represented Great Britain at the European Shooting Championships every year between 1994 and 2005, and also in 2007, with multiple finals places.
Domestically, Louise won the British Women's Air Rifle Championship ten times, setting numerous individual and team British records in the process, several of which remained unbroken by 2013 when decimal scoring was adopted for 10m Air Rifle, creating a new generation of records.
Following her retirement from world class shooting, Louise was certified as an ISSF Class-C Rifle Coach and offers professional coaching services to individual shooters and teams.