Getting to the Commonwealth Games for shooting can be expensive, especially when it costs 50 cents every time you pull the trigger, but thanks to donations from kind Kiwis, Sally Johnston is set to defend her gold medal title.
The Invercargill-born shooter works full-time work for the Ministry of Primary Industries while managing to train and compete at a top international level in shooting.
Johnston won gold in the women's 50m rifle prone at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and is now set to defend that medal in her fifth Commonwealth Games.
But the cost of defending gold isn't cheap.
"I did a quick add up on the back of an envelope and kind of horrified myself at the number, because it was basically over 14 months I’d sunk about $45,000 into the sport."
But she loves the sport, and says she understands not all sports can get the same amount of funding.
"Wouldn't it be lovely to have an unlimited pot of money and everybody could get equal amounts, but that's not the real world.
"Lots of athletes that are in my boat, know that going in you're going to have to scrimp and save or find outside support."
"New Zealand, we do pretty well generally, if we as athletes have to put our hand into our own pockets sometimes, we wouldn't do it if we didn't love it, if it didn't mean something."
About a month ago Johnson set up a Givealittle page after her "pockets were well and truly bare" to ask for help to get to the Gold Coast.
"Everybody that has donated has made such a difference to me, so it's amazing," she told 1 NEWS.
The page has raised nearly $8000, Anything over the $15,000 target "will go back into the sport, for electronic targets, for up and coming junior shooters and the shooters of New Zealand to really bring us up into the world class standard for our ranges."
With gun violence being the centre of news in recent months Johnston says she understands why some would be wary about the "idea of handling guns" for sport.
"But at the same time New Zealand has quite a strong rural community, and quite a strong culture around safe gun handling.
"I think shooting sports is really valuable in that it can teach people how to handle firearms really safely from a really young age. And that can be a really good thing.
She says it's a sport of focus and concentration that can be helpful for people of all ages.
"It's one that a lot of kids can really benefit from through their whole lives. If you're in a shooting sport you often start to do better in school, better in the workforce because you learn that ability to focus and concentrate, centre yourself and calm down."
Johnston will defend her gold medal title in the women's 50m rifle prone on Thursday at 4pm NZT.
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