Road to World Shoot champs underway

The first leg of the Rifle World Shoot championships hosted by the Limpopo Practical Shooting Association at the Polokwane Shooting Range on Saturday and Sunday was epic as more than 120 shooters from across the country and as far as Germany and France competed in various categories to claim points.
Participants competed in categories such as the closest range and 10 m to 100 m shooting distances and the divisions ranged from open manual, open semi-automatic and standard semi-automatic. The tournament organiser, Tinus Botha emphasised that the competition was the biggest ever held in the province and added that competitors had to move around in order to shoot the targets and this made the challenge difficult.
According to Botha, there are two more rounds to be contested before shooters who made it to the World Shoot championships could be announced. The challenge attracted junior, ladies, senior and super-senior shooters and Botha indicated that the second leg will be hosted in October at the Polokwane Shooting Range while the last leg will be held in Gauteng in March next year.
He further stated that Polokwane Shooting Range is regarded as a state-of-the-art shooting range that is why most tournaments are hosted in the city.
The handgun shooting championships are expected to be held in Polokwane in June and shooters from all over the world are expected to participate. The results are as follows:

Open manual
Albert Thomas Olivier (Mpumalanga) – 848 points.
Tertius Erasmus (Limpopo) – 844 points.
Ruben Rautenbach (Limpopo) – 745 points.
Open semi-automatic
1. Andre du Toit – 936 points.
2. Gerrit-Jan Bakker – 935 points.
3. Lee Geldenhuys – 848 points.
Standard semi-auto
1. Demis Karamitsos – 918 points.
2. Piet van Wyk – 885 points.
3. Tinus Botha (Limpopo) – 863 points.
Team results general category
1. Northern Gauteng – 2 638 points.
2. Kwazulu-Natal – 2 476 points.
3. Mpumalanga A-team – 2 294 points.
Team results ladies category
1. Limpopo Practical Shooting Association –
1 149 points.
2. Mpumalanga – 857 points.

Story and photos: ENDY SENYATSI
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