Maidstone’s Bill Wilson wins gold in SH2 class at British Open Airgun Championships and targets international success to prove he’s not too old for Paralympics

A man left paralysed below the armpits after an accident abroad is now a British champion in his chosen sport of shooting.

Bill Wilson, from Maidstone, suffered a life-changing fall down hotel stairs while in Holland six years ago.

He’d gone to fetch his camera from his fifth-floor room ready to accompany his mum to a tulip festival in Amsterdam when he tripped and fell backwards down a marble staircase.

“The coaches had arrived at breakfast time and I thought I’d shoot up to the room to get my camera,” recalled Wilson, who recently turned 61.

“The lift at the hotel was very slow - it took a minute to do a floor and we were on the fifth floor - so I decided to take the stairs.

“I said, ‘I’ll be down in a sec, Mum’ but it was a different story.

“I got to the last step on the fifth floor and caught my boot under the carpet section, went back and came down 28 marble steps and snapped my neck, unfortunately.

“But that was then, that was May 2018, but I’ve made a good comeback. I’m still in a wheelchair but onwards and upwards, so they say.”

Wilson’s inspirational attitude to life has seen him flourish in disability air rifle shooting.

He took up the sport while going through rehab at Stoke Mandeville and has even set up a shooting range at home.

It involves him firing his air rifle through the hallway and kitchen, into the conservatory.

Wilson works with national coach Bob Thornby and last month competed in the British Open Airgun Championships in Bisley, Surrey.

He won gold in the SH2 class and bronze in the SH1 class, pipped by two Team GB athletes.

“We’re put into various classifications, like a handicap, based on whether you can hold the rifle,” said Wilson.

“I can’t lift both arms at the same time so I utilise a spring