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Report on the GB FITASC Sporting Team - The European FITASC Sporting Championships - La Hirtenberg, Austria 10-13 July 2008

Report on the GB FITASC Sporting Team Performance At The European FITASC Sporting Championships Leobersdorf Shooting Park Hirtenburg Austria

The shooting park is located approximately 1 hours drive South of Vienna near a small town called Leobersdorf junction 29 on the A2/E59.

This region is typically rolling arable farmland and vineyards with wooded hillsides the European championships took place in this setting.

The ground, under the guidance of Joseph Hahnenenkamp had made a lot of effort to accommodate the domestic requirements of the 800 plus competitors booked in for this event.

16 British Referees took part with Charlie Botham and Kieth Mursell being awarded their International Licence on completion, well done to them both.

There where 8 courses set for the competition all had 4 stands per layout, the courses where named:

Beretta, Browning, Bornagahi, Blaser, Swarovski, Dortheum, Hull, Fiochi/Rio.

The majority of the layouts layouts with the exception of Blaser and Bornaghi were in clearings in a woodland area that had been a war time ammunition factory. A high percentage of targets had natural limits and also small windows for the competitor to acquire and break the target.

Veniero Spada (Italy) had been sent by The FITASC to advise on target and course design; his influence would be obvious to those competitors who had attended the European Championships at Lanato in 2007.

The competition ran over four days; as usual the first day is a settling in period with not a lot to report, however, Matt Hance GB and Charles Bardou Fr were joint leaders on 49 ex 50 with George Digweed and Veniero Spada IT on 48.

The question remains to be answered as to the ethics of Spada advising on the competition course and target selection with the intention of competing in the event, as he had also done when this event was held in Italy and he took Bronze medal position in 2006.

On completion of day two it became obvious that layout A Bornaghi would shoot tougher than other layouts.

Charles Bardou Fr, led the field at this stage on 98 with Ben Husthwaite 97 and Philip Thorrold GB, 96.

In the team placing the French Senior team had the lead on 370, Spain 364 and GB 360. The Ladies had Italy 232, GB 223, Austria 221. Juniors Italy 270, GB 261 and France 261.

GB was leading the Veterans 263 with France on 251 and Italy 243. Finally the German super Veterans well ahead of the rest on 237 with GB 221 and France 220.

The British new caps in all categories were now finding their feet and feel for the targets the final 100 targets would be crucial for all team members.

Jeremy Bland (SV) Sarah Clay and Sarah Hamburger should be commended for their can do attitude whilst having to re-skill themselves in the early stages of the competition; they all stuck doggedly to their task as did all of the GB team members

The Brits had come to terms with these nip and tuck targets, with a good showing in all the individual categories and a fist full in the top ten across the board.

With the top seniors looking to break 190 for their total scores there were 3 Brits and one Italian competitor with the European title in their grasp. Ben Husthwaite shot 25, 24 (49 ex 50) with Philip Thorrold 25, he then disastrously missed his first 2 targets on line A finishing on a 20 (45 ex 50). George Digweed and the Italian finished 1 target apiece behind Thorrold thus requiring a shoot-off for third, George won on 21 against Italian Mori Giacomo

RESULTS

Seniors: Ben Husthwaite 192, Philip Thorrold 190, George Digweed 189 + 21 Mori Giacomo 189 + 17.

Ladies: Stefanie Steinkraus (Ger) 176. Silver, Cheryl Hall 170. Bronze, Inna Aleksandrova (RU) 160.

Juniors: Gasparini Davide, 184 + 19 after a shoot-off with Bastien Harvart (FR) 184 + 18. Bronze, Sam Green 183 only one target behind an excellent effort from Sam.

Veterans: Colin Saich, 181, Silver, John Bidwell, 180 and Bronze, John Pool 178 a GB clean sweep.

Super Vets: Joe Cantey (USA) and Joachim Krenkler (Ger) 166. Joe as a non-European Joachim has the honour. Silver, Hans Oosterveen, 165 and Bronze, Alaine Gossiome 162 (Fr)

Team placing were as follows:

Seniors: France Gold, 735, GB Silver 725, Bronze, Portugal 719.

GB Team: Matt Hance (185) Martin Myers, (182) Mark Marshall (180) and Shaun Stacey, (178).

Ladies: Gold Germany 461. Silver GB 447. Bronze France 432.

GB Team: Cheryl Hall 170, Sarah Hamburger 140 and Sarah Clay 132.

Juniors: Gold Italy 539. Silver GB 518. Bronze France 507.

GB Team: Sam Green 183, David Bolton 172 and Kyle Storey 163.

Vets: Gold France 522. Silver GB 513. Bronze Italy 501.

GB Team: John Pool 178, John Dyson 171 and Steve Brightwell 164.

Super Vets: Gold GB 473. Silver Germany 465. Bronze France 441.

GB Team: Roger Ward 159, David Payne 159 and Jeremy Bland 155.

All the GB Team members worked hard to earn a magnificent team result of 1 team Gold and 4 team Silvers together with additional individual achievements.

All team members were exceptional ambassadors for their country, worthy of note was the efforts of the GB Captain Matt Hance and of the managerial efforts of Paul Storey, although Paul was not recognised in an official capacity the delivering of the teams on time was largely down to his efforts.

In addition many thanks to Alan Rhone Krieghoff, Darren Hull, Blaser and Mike Haw Hull Cartridge Company, for your generous support of Team GB FITASC Sporting 2008.

Hugh Smith
Chairman BICTSF FITASC Sporting.

For A Full List of Results Click Here.

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