Fillmore area trapshooter Rod Boll, along with his son Kahl, competed recently at the World Cup in Americana, Brazil, from Aug. 5-11.

Rod, a member of Canada's national trapshooting team since 1993, had been to the World Cup previously, but this was his son Kahl's first time at the event.

In truth, Rod said going to Brazil was really more about exposing Kahl, who is currently attending college, to his first World Cup, and letting him see the level of competition.

Unfortunately, Kahl had an extremely rough time at the World Cup. Rod said he was sick for the first couple days, and on the third day, a gun breakdown forced him to borrow guns from other shooters.

Although Kahl failed to medal in his events, Rod said he shot well considering all that happened.

"When you take a rookie shooter to a prestigious event where there's professional athletes, you can't expect them to finish in the top 10," he said. "You should let them enjoy themselves and get used to the level of competition."

Kahl enjoyed the level of competition, Rod said, and is determined to enter future World Cups, which are essentially a pre-cursor to the Summer Olympics.

Ultimately, it's important to expose young shooters like Kahl to high-profile events like the World Cup, in order to whet their appetite for the sport.

"The future of shooting in Canada is certainly not Rod Boll," said Rod. "It's the Kahl Bolls and the kids like him, and the kids that we haven't discovered yet."

Rod placed 12th out of roughly 50 shooters. That was not an ideal placing, but Rod said he was constrained by a lack of time for training.

Depending on how late harvest comes this year, Rod hopes to attend the CAT Championships in Puerto Rico this November. He has never shot in Puerto Rico before.

Trapshooting is the sport of shooting at clay targets released at unexpected angles in front of the marksman.