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GB FITASC Report - St Petersburg 27-30 May 2010

Report on the GB FITASC Sporting Team Performance At The European FITASC Sporting Championships
Nevsky Shooting Club, St-Petersburg, Russia 27- 30 May 2010
 

Nevsky Shooting Club is located approximately 1 hours drive North of St-Petersburg
within the confines of an Army Infantry Battle and Tank range.
 
This region is typically flat arable farm and forestry close to the Baltic coast. The 33rd European championships took place in this setting.
 
The targets were set by Mr Valery Konshin and were categorised and authorised by the FITASC Sporting Technical Commission representative Mr Hans Wenger Switzerland. 288 competitors registered for this event.
 
There where 8 courses set for the competition all had 4 stands per layout, the courses where named:
 
Krieghoff, Laporte 1 & 2, Glavpatron, Olympiets, Beretta, Fetter and Bank Zenit.
 
The layouts were in sandy open areas, scrub, over water and light forestation. The club served as an administration HQ and also a limited trader's centre; catering facilities were available and not expensive unlike the price of ammunition that equated to £9:00p for 25 cartridges with no reduction for quantities of 250 or more. Cartridge choice was limited to 2 makes both Russian there was no European ammunition available.
 
Beretta, Laporte 1 & 2, and Olympiets was a long drive over rough terrain approximately 5 Km from the administration centre taking 20 to 30 min to reach by various means of transport.
 
Due to the low entry level it was decided to shoot 4 layouts for the first two days then the remaining 4 layouts over the last two days; this was more efficient in manpower terms but required the competitors to stay at the ground for most of each day.
 
GB was represented by Senior and Veterans teams with Cheryl Hall representing Ladies and Chris Papworth representing Juniors; there was no representative for the Super veterans from GB. However, there were also a number of individual British representatives including: George Digweed, Ben Husthwaite, Phillip Thorold and Dave Smith. Mel Watson GB referee also took part with Hugh Smith as advisor to the Russian administration and Russian chief referee.
 
The majority of the foreign visiting competitors were based at the Repino Boutique Hotel which was comfortable and more than adequate for every ones needs; teams were driven daily by coach to and from the ground with only one trip to and one from the event. However, given that there was little else to occupy spare time it was better to be at the ground than isolated at the Hotel.
 
Day one had a disastrous start with the transport to the distant ranges, the driver having driven out referees and support crews to the far ranges returned vowing never to drive out to them again stating it was worse than World War roads. However hastily organised transport was employed and the two furthest layouts commenced one hour late.
 
Normally a delay of this nature would have been a complete disaster but the referees responded and the day ended 15 min late on Olympiets with Laporte completing on time thanks to the inexperienced referees pulling out the stops.
 
The competition ran over four days; as usual the first day is a settling in period with not a lot to report, however, GB competitors performed well with Martin Papworth and Ben Husthwaite 48 ex 50 one target behind the leaders. John Dyson led the Vets on 44, Cheryl Hall top Lady 43 and Chris Papworth 2 targets behind top Junior on 45
 
On completion of day two it became obvious that the competition targets were there to be had, with the Krieghoff layout standing out against the others i.e. all layouts produced good scores with such a good variety of targets competitors would be challenged up to the last shots fired.
 
George Digweed was a little way down the positions posting 93 ex 100 with Ben Husthwaite now tied on 96 ex 100 with French shooter Christophe Auvret, and a host of different nationalities hot on their heals including Martin Papworth (GB) 94.
 
Cheryl Hall was leading Ladies on 83, 3 targets ahead of Ira Kirenska (LV) on 80.
 
Vets leader saw France with 1st 90, second 89 and third 88 with John Dyson 87 and Brendon Frost 85.
 
Junior lead was Spain 94, France 90, Italy 88 and Chris Papworth also 88,
 
In the team placing the GB Senior team were in third position on 353, Spain second 361 and France first 369. Vets had GB third 249, Italy second 250 and France first 267.
 
During day 3 the team placings were constantly changing with the Russian Senior team overtaking GB due to a computer error that had dropped a Russian score on day 2, Vets were now under pressure from Italy but were in a Silver medal position.
 
I the individual positions Ben Husthwaite had a one target lead over Christophe Auvret (FR) on 145 and George Digweed now third on 143.
 
Ladies individuals remained unchanged with Cheryl 4 targets clear of Ira (LV) and Spain 3rd.
 
Junior's individuals now had Spain first 139, France 136 and Sweden moving over Italy to 3rd with Chris Papworth (GB) fourth one target behind.
 
It was all to play for on the final day However, day 4 commenced with gusting winds that grew stronger over the final day's competition; if you were out early it was a bonus.
 
The Senior individuals could not be separated with the completion of a very difficult shoot off Christophe Auvret won by 2 192 + 18 targets over Ben Husthwaite 192 + 16 to claim the 2010 European Crown and in third place George Digweed just one target behind on 191.
 
RESULTS:
Medal positions GB Non Team
 
Seniors: Ben Husthwaite Silver 192, George Digweed 191 Bronze.
Ladies: Cheryl Hall 162 Gold and European Ladies Champion.
 
Team placing:
 
Seniors: France Gold, 740, Spain Silver 733, Bronze Russia 719 (GB 4th 710).
 
GB Team: Martin Papworth, (182) Stuart Rudling (180) Kevin Jobling, (178) Paul Bachelor (170)
 
Ladies Teams: Italy 455 Gold, France 451 Silver, Russia 402 Bronze,
 
Juniors Teams: France 518 Gold, Italy 496 Silver, Sweden 492 Bronze.
 
Vets: France 532 Gold, Italy 499 Silver, GB 498 Bronze.
 
GB Team: John Dyson (174), Brendon Frost (165), Neville Jay (159).
 
Super Vets: France 477 Gold, Italy 439 Silver, Sweden 438 Bronze.
 
Statistics:
 
There were 42, 25 ex 25 on the last 2 days with 16 on Bank Zenit and only one on Fetter; Laporte 2 had 7, Beretta 18.
 
Average score over all layouts was 77.3%
 
The high scoring results give the impression this was an easy shoot, be assured it was not easy it was demanding at every position the scores reflect just how far FITASC Sporting competitors have progressed over the past 5 years.
 
All the GB Team members worked hard in tough conditions to earn Bronze Vets and Individual Bronze Vets john Dyson. The Seniors were poorly rewarded by their hard work coming 4th.
 
All team members were exceptional ambassadors for their country, worthy of note was the efforts of the GB Captain John Dyson.
 
GB Junior Chris Papworth came 4th just 3 targets off 3rd place and worked hard all through the competition.
 
GB referee Mel Watson was successful in achieving his International Referees licence at this event.
 
Neville Jay stepped into the vacant position of the GB Veteran no show Dennis Webb, resulting in a Bronze Vets team medal; without Neville's acceptance to fill this post the Vets would not have been represented as a team having gone to considerable personal cost to attend this event and deserve high praise for their efforts.
 

Hugh Smith
Chairman BICTSF FITASC Sporting.

FITASC Sporting GB Team for European Championships

Note: Paddy Howe declined his S/Veterans team place resulting in the team as selected in the table.
 
There are 6 new GB Caps as indicated by **.
 

Hugh Smith.
Chairman FITASC Sporting GB

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