leighH
Well-known member
The European FITASC Sporting champs were held 4th - 7th April at La Yedra shooting ground in the hills some 45 minutes North of Málaga in Southern Spain. There was a very strong contingent of British shooters almost 160, nearly a quarter of the entry.
The first three days saw high gusty winds all the way through the days, adding greatly to the targets difficulty and unpredictability. Frenchman Charles Bardeau shot remarkably well in the circumstances to only drop 6 targets out of 150 in the first 3 days. This gave him a 2 clay lead over Cypriot Angelos Avraam going into the last day when the winds had dropped. Both had the testing Kreigoff and the much more benign Mutasport to shoot. Kreigoff really decided the Championship with Charles shooting a 20 there before finishing with a 23. Avraam matched the latter score but shot another 23 on Kreigoff to take the title by 1 clay. Charles eventually finishing with bronze after being beaten for the silver by Bastian Havert in a shoot off.
There followed a clutch of Brits in the top 10, highest place was Sam Green who needed to straight Kreigoff to tie for lead but a 23 left him out the medals by 1 target. James Atwood, Mark Winder, Richard Bunning and Billy Baughan followed.
Kevin Jobling won Seniors gold with Nigel Hart the bronze, Steve Williams & Chip Smith were 1&2 in Veterans and yet another gold for John Bidwell in Masters with Mick Harding in bronze.
There was gold for the Senior, Veteran and Masters teams (the latter being the only team entered) plus a team bronze for the Juniors.
Consensus of opinion was that it was a very good shoot on terrific terrain that course setter Patrick Rousso had used very well to bring a great variety of targets. Unfortunately the winds had made some shots almost impossible, I heard several mentions of an overhead that dropped so fast it was almost impossible to shoot at, and a crosser out at 100 meters plus. But the winds were there all the first 3 days so it sort of levelled the field out. The ground looked after us Referees well.
Regards
Leigh
The first three days saw high gusty winds all the way through the days, adding greatly to the targets difficulty and unpredictability. Frenchman Charles Bardeau shot remarkably well in the circumstances to only drop 6 targets out of 150 in the first 3 days. This gave him a 2 clay lead over Cypriot Angelos Avraam going into the last day when the winds had dropped. Both had the testing Kreigoff and the much more benign Mutasport to shoot. Kreigoff really decided the Championship with Charles shooting a 20 there before finishing with a 23. Avraam matched the latter score but shot another 23 on Kreigoff to take the title by 1 clay. Charles eventually finishing with bronze after being beaten for the silver by Bastian Havert in a shoot off.
There followed a clutch of Brits in the top 10, highest place was Sam Green who needed to straight Kreigoff to tie for lead but a 23 left him out the medals by 1 target. James Atwood, Mark Winder, Richard Bunning and Billy Baughan followed.
Kevin Jobling won Seniors gold with Nigel Hart the bronze, Steve Williams & Chip Smith were 1&2 in Veterans and yet another gold for John Bidwell in Masters with Mick Harding in bronze.
There was gold for the Senior, Veteran and Masters teams (the latter being the only team entered) plus a team bronze for the Juniors.
Consensus of opinion was that it was a very good shoot on terrific terrain that course setter Patrick Rousso had used very well to bring a great variety of targets. Unfortunately the winds had made some shots almost impossible, I heard several mentions of an overhead that dropped so fast it was almost impossible to shoot at, and a crosser out at 100 meters plus. But the winds were there all the first 3 days so it sort of levelled the field out. The ground looked after us Referees well.
Regards
Leigh
