__________________________________________________________________ Sunday, August 28th, 2:30 local time - After the shoot-off, final report
Greetings all,
Well, this will be my last report from this WS. I thank all those who took the time to email me and tell me how much they appreciated these reports. They were fun doing, and it was a huge kick to see how many people came in to read these reports daily. Again, proving our sport is truly international, and not all the small either... Final overall scores have not been made public. Personally, I hate that. for some reason in IPSC they seem to feel it's right to keep it a secret until the prize ceremony. Just the way it is I guess. I can tell you that word on the range is that Robbi won Standard yet again. Eric won Open for sure. Adam seems to have won Production. Jerry won Revolver, but not by a land slide. Gabi won ladies Open, Petra won Standard ladies. The shoot-off was great. ran like clock work, precisely on time - and did not drag on for hours and hours either. Single elimination, top 8 only in all classes, and best of 3 in the finals. Each shooter had 13 (!!) steels to hit - including a 30m steel plate.. Not easy. I'm happy I did not have to do that without my Aimpoint! I shot well, beating Jorge in the first round and JJ in the 2nd, to make it, once again, to shoot against Eric in the best of 3 final. I shot well - but now well enough. One extra shot in the first run, and a fumbled load in the 2nd gave it to Eric, who shot great all day. But I was happy with how I shot, and pleased to make it to the final is such a great field of shooters. The several hundred spectators were loving it all. It was a fun, well organized and well run shoot off. I would have like a little less aiming and a little more speed though... So here are some clips - from the finals of the Open and Standard shoot off. Robi won that too... WS/SO_open_1.wmv
WS/SO_open_2.wmv
WS/SO_standard_1.wmv
WS/SO_standard_2.wmv
WS/SO_standard_3.wmv Off the clean up the cameras, and pack up my gear. We fly out of here tomorrow early, and I must say, that although it's been great - I am certainly ready to head on home. Shoot great and be safe, Saul Kirsch __________________________________________________________________ Saturday, August 27th,2:30 local time - End of final day
Greetings all,
Well, that was it - the last day of the main match is over. Of course, tomorrow we still have the shoot-off and prizes to look forward too, but for the most part, this WS is finished. There was plenty of drama in the Openssquad today, and many of us did have the clean finish we all would have liked. I think most shooters on our squad picked up a penalty at some point of the day, and there were some other mishaps and errors as well... But in the end not much changed in the over all results. The official results are not out yet, but Eric is a sure winner by a comfortable margin. I believe Todd is 2nd, but I just heard a rumor that perhaps he is 3rd and Stephan from the Philippines slipped in under the radar for 2nd. Not sure about that. Jorge from Spain is 4th, max 5th, JJ 6th, myself 7th. But all this should be online in just a couple of hours. We will wait for the official scores. Kraushofer Gabriele of Austria won the Ladies open title, it is very possible that Petra Tutschke of Germany won the Ladies Standard. I have no idea who won Standard in the men's. Nor do I know the end results in Production - although I did hear that Dave got a re-shoot on the last stage some were unhappy with.... Not sure about the details on that one. It seems that Jerry won revolver, but by a much smaller margin that he is used to. The results should be up this evening on the WS website at http://www.worldshootxiv.com/
so i guess we will all just have to wait a few hours longer. Meanwhile I will upload some new clips for your enjoyment. These clips are just a very small preview of what is to come in the official WS DVD which I am producing. I had a camera man on the stages throughout the week, and he has filmed the top squads in all divisions. So I have over 50 hours of tape to edit... Also, I shot the entire match with a hi-res hat cam so you will be able to view the stages as seen from behind my gun. This DVD will be a double disc, probably totaling over 3 hours. It will of course include the shoot off as well. I will make every effort to have this out ASAP - and the plan is to have it ready before the end of October. For more information keep your eye on this site - or join our mailing list. So here are some clips from the shooting today. Hat cam stage 28
WS/30_saul.wmv
WS/30_max.wmv
WS/30_todd.wmv I will make one more report tomorrow. before packing up for the long trip home. Regards,
Saul Kirsch __________________________________________________________________ Friday, August 26th,18:30 local time - End of day 5
Hi,
Once again I am back at the hotel early. I really do prefer shooting in the morning squads. Sure, you need to get up at 4:30, but, you are back at the hotel by 2pm, and you don't sit in traffic on the way back.
The sun finally came out today at noon, and immediately the temperature soared and everyone went scrambling for their sun block. It reminded us all how lucky we have been with the weather all week long. It can really get hot here.. The Open Super squad shot area 4 today, the one which includes the much discussed stage 24. This incredible stage is by far the most tactically challenging and interesting stage of this match. Shooters have been studying it days in advance, and the range crew told me they had seen it run in more than 20 variations. And if you saw the stage you would know why. This excellent stage was built by Ronald Seger and his team, working 3 days straight before the prematch. The stages is constructed between 2 bays, connected by a mine shaft tunnel....    The shooter begins in the tunnel and can choose to go right or left first, the first of many tactical decisions to be made on the stage. Each side has multiple targets to be shot and a popper which activates 2 sliding targets - ON THE OTHER BAY... So, you have to run to one side, shoot a bunch of stuff, run back, shoot one mover and activate the other, and then run back again to the first range. In fact, it's a lot more complicated than that, because the movers do not remain visible all the time - they come in and out of hard cover, and you needed to time your movement and shooting so that you get to the other bay to shoot the movers - and catch them visible. Not only that, but the movers slide one way, then, reverse direction and slide back. Truly one of the more interesting stages I have seen in a while. I will try to upload some clips to this report. Speaking of clips - you may have noticed I removed some of the old ones.. Sorry about that, but I had no choice - my site is exceeding its allowed bandwidth, and I have already spent $100 for more... I'm not complaining mind you - I am getting a great thrill from over 500.000 hits a day! But please - download each clip one time only....:)   I had another good day today. Made up some more ground and progressed a couple of places. I won the first stage of the day, which was a boost, and shot well throughout. Had a solid run on the last big stage 24 - but we all got blown out the water by JJ who shot an amazing time of 21.00 seconds. All the rest of the super squad could do not better than 22.5-23 seconds.. So JJ won some points there. We finally got all the score sheets from jorge Ballesteros, whom we knew was shooting well. And indeed he is! His score puts him up there in 3rd behind Todd. Eric still leads, increasing his margin slowly but surely. So at the moment, the top Open standings seem to be:
Eric 2316, Todd 2228, Jorge 2213 Max 2174, JJ 2168, Saul 2135, Chris 2107, Jojo 2086, Brodie 2081 Eddy 2079. Hat cam of stage 19 (Saul Kirsch)
WS/19_saul.wmv
WS/21_jojo.wmv
WS/24_jj.wmv
WS/24_eddy.wmv
WS/24_saul.wmv One more day of shooting tomorrow and it will be all over. I will report. last minute news flash: Hi Saul,
I have been working on team scores if you would like to include in your update. These scores do not include Friday. US OPEN MENS 5168, FRANCE OPEN MENS 4891, AUSTRALIA OPEN MENS 4850, PHILIPINE OPEN MENS 4822. These are the top 4.
Saul Kirsch
__________________________________________________________________ Thursday, August 25th,21:45 local time - End of day 4
Hi,
I will keep it short today, as we shot in the afternoon squads, and only got back to the hotel after 7pm, being stuck in traffic on the way back. I certainly prefer the morning squads.... I shot well today, not making any major mistakes and shooting only one D all day long. Won one stage I think, and finished top 5 in a couple of others. A few changes in the ranking in our squad - although I must say again that we have results only of the shooters in our squad - and there are others up there too. Eric is on "cruise control" protecting his lead and letting everyone else hustle to try and catch up. Max is trying real hard and is showing spurts of brilliance, followed by some more average stages.. He has not been able to catch up with Eric. Todd is now well in second, and Chris Tilley is hanging on in 3rd.
The points are as follows: Eric 1859, Todd 1780, Chris 1766, JJ 1746, Max 1730, Jojo 1713, Saul 1694, Brodie 1666, Eddi 1647, Errol 1609.      
I really have no info about the other categories, as by the time we were done shooting there was no one to talk to on the range... I did hear that Gabbi from Austria is shooting great in the Open Ladies, and may well be leading. I hope can finally do it. WS/18_max.wmv
WS/18_saul.wmv
WS/18_todd.wmv Enjoy the pics and movies - I will try to have more tomorrow - as I shoot in the morning.
Saul Thursday, August 25th,09:02 local time - Morning of day 4
Hi All,
Before heading out to the range, I just wanted to post a quick note to say thank you to all those who posted appreciation notes on various forums and sent me emails telling me how much they are enjoying these reports. The response has been overwhelming, proving that there are many thousands of enthusiastic IPSC shooters out there. Which is really great to know. We are indeed one big global family! I will make very effort to keep the reports and movie clips coming.
Speaking of movies - did you all know that Double-Alpha Academy is producing the official WS DVD? It will be a double DVD and will feature top shooters in all divisions covering all stages of this great match. It should be available by mid October. For more information keep your eye on this site - or join our mailing list. To our many American viewers - this DVD, and the 2 new Super Squad DVDs (Limited and Open) will be available shortly in the USA at many select retailers such as uspsa.org, brianenos.com, mattburkett.com, ghostholster.com, maxmichel.com, andersonshooting.com, SSI and many others. The New Super squad DVDs from this year's Nationals should be out there by the end of September. OK, I'm off to clean my gun and mags. I will report at the end of the day.
Saul Kirsch __________________________________________________________________ Wednesday, August 24th,17:02 local time - End of day 3
Day three is over for the morning squads, while the late squads are still slugging it out on the range. The perfect weather continues, cool temperatures and cloudy skies. Perfect!
The match is now well on schedule and, in fact, we actually finished our stages ahead of our planned schedule today. The match is running well, although verifies still seem to be hard to come by... I have yet to see one score of my shooting up on the verify - and we have been shooting for 3 days. Strange that, as other aspects of the match seem to be running so well.    The Ammo crisis seems to be over for most - although I heard today that the US shipment of ammo by Armscor will not come at all! this means that some of the US shooters will have real problems finishing the match. Some were able to bring enough ammo with them, while others could bring only enough for the first 3 days, and will now have to either buy from the local ammo available by Armscor, or hope friends on the team can help them. Not a pleasant prospect. It really does seem that getting some kind of concession for traveling with extra weight should be addressed by the official body of our sport. Or perhaps the matches should be changed to allow them to be shot with less ammo? Anyway, there is a real problem! I finally had a good day of shooting, winning 2 stages (well, at least on our squad) and not making any major mistakes. Eric shot an amazing run on the big stage of the morning, and increased his lead by over 25 points in that stages alone. However, not everything was going his way, as he then had a miss on the next speed shoot, and had some stages where he was off the pace of the top guys. He is obviously shooting a tactical match, protecting his lead which is slowly growing. Chris Tilley is still shooting well, but he too had a couple of errors today, a miss and a PT during the day. Max Michel was on fire at the end of the day - winning the last 2 stages by a convincing margin. However this great shooting following a dismal performance in the previous stage, in which he had 2 misses on the same target. "shot them just over the target" he told me. "I saw the dot was high, but I still thought it was on there".     This tough break happened to Max on a 26 round stage, in which the gun started on a table with a mag seated but empty chamber. Extra mags were on the table as well. The choice to be made was whether or not to take the time to pick up an extra mag from the table - or to run the stage with one big mag only... I choose to risk it - starting with a full 29 round mag, and shooting it clean to win the stage. Eric reloaded by the table, playing it safe, and it cost him some time. So at this mid point in the Open Match, things are as follows:
Eric 1394, Chris 1337, Todd 1336, JJ 1335, Max 1288, Jojo 1276, Brodie 1247 Saul 1243. So there are only 2 points between 2nd and 4th place.... Things will certainly change tomorrow...Of course, we do not have the scores from other squads which include great shooters who are certainly up there as well. As for the other divisions - I don't have much info. Speaking to Robbi today he told me they were all making mistakes, but he reckoned that Taran Buttler may well be leading followed by Phil Strader. But - they are not running scores in their squad. Here are some video clips from today - this time from the Standard Super Squad: Off to the super market across the street to go buy some Gatorrade. More tomorrow, Saul
__________________________________________________________________ Tuesday, August 23rd, 22:05 local time - End of day 2
Day 2 continued with the most pleasant weather imaginable. Cool, over cast and yet dry. A slight breeze, but nothing to get in the way of a smoothly running match. And it did indeed seem that finally everything was on track. We shot area 1 today, and were on schedule all day - finishing at 6pm, as planned. In fact, there is little option of running late, as it gets dark by 6:30. The pressure is on. This WS has more competitors than ever before, and the range crew are doing a great job to keep hundreds and hundreds of shooters going through the stages on schedule.
The range too deserves credit. The stages and props are all well built, resulting in very few equipment failure re-shoots. Indeed a good job was done on the range. Worth mentioning are the rest-rooms out on the range. These toilet facilities would better quite a good 3-4 stare hotel than an outdoor shooting range. Decorative tiles, and spotlessly clean, maintained through the day by a team of cleaners. I have never seen any facilities come close to this at a match. We appreciate it! Squad 21, the Open Super Squad shot area 1 today - stages 1 through 6. Eric came in with a 1 point lead over Chris Tilley this morning, and today saw him increase that lead substantially. He shot a flawless day, not making a single error, and although Chris put up a great fight, he dropped back some 35 points. Todd now trails Chris by another 20, JJ trails Todd by 10. Max is currently 10 points behind JJ and Jojo 25 points further back, a total of 100 (!!) behind Eric. And that rounds off the top 5 in Open - at least as far as our squad goes... There are other great open shooters on other squad, which may well mix things up. Spain's Jorge Ballesteros and Norway's Henning Wallgren, just to mention a few. So it will be interesting. But I think unless someone closes up with Eric tomorrow - he may well begin to cruse to the finish line, as he does so well.
My match was not worth mentioning today, I am sorry to say. I did have one ray of light, winning stage 4. But, a couple of bad errors and a jam did not help my cause any. I expect tomorrow can only be better.
In the Production race I hear Czech shooter Adam Tyc is still fending off Dave Sevigny - but that is only from rumors. there were no verifies up this evening.
That's it for now - off to bed. Tomorrow it's another early start, shooting at 7am.
Regards to all,
Saul Kirsch See below some movie clips - hot off the range, and some pics. Enjoy        __________________________________________________________________ Monday, August 22nd, 17:25 local time - End of day 1
Yesterday evening was the Opening ceremony, held on the river front in the city of Guayaquil. It was a well organized event well attended and extremely colorful. Hundreds of shooters from some 60 nations represented in the match were marched in led by the Navy band. Air force jets did fly-overs, speeches were made, and traditional dances performed. The evening closed early with dancing, drinks and snacks. It was very successful indeed.       Day one of the main match is over now- at least for those who shot in the morning squads. We are running in half-day schedules, which is actually a great thing. If you shoot in the morning, you do begin early, but you're done by noon. The afternoon squads can sleep late, have a leisurely breakfast, and get out to the range at 11am. Not a bad deal all around. Most of the ammo did in fact arrive, although there were still plenty of long faces on the range today. The Armscor ammo for the US team has not yet come in, still being stuck in Miami. All the US shooters are shooting, but many do not have enough ammo to finish the match. Fingers crosses the ammo will be in tomorrow. The main Armscor container which was stuck in Panama did arrive on the range today, and so many who were without ammo got "saved" at the very last moment. Although - there were plenty of complaints on the the range... Primer flow-back on 38S ammo, 40 being loaded too short. A lot of unhappy shooters. I am sure Armscor meant well when they did all this - but at the end of the day, it has not panned out very well. Some shooters could not shoot, as their guns had not arrived. The entire team from Serbia was sidelined today, as their guns and ammo are still stuck at customs. It really is sad to see - shooters who have spent so much money and effort to be here not being able to shoot this excellent match.       The match itself (other than guns and ammo import problems) is getting onto track and running smoothly. We did have some delays today, as there were no scores sheets available on some stages, but for the most part, things were running on schedule. Even the weather cooperated - we had a cool overcast day, with temperatures at about 20 degrees. Perfect shooting weather. Things were hotter on squad 21 - the Open Super Squad. We have the US team. the Ausi team, the French team and the Ecuadorian shooters. Todd Jarret and myself there as well. A lot of very intense very serious competitors... Todd got off to a great start. He was saying that since Nationals he had been shooting 1200 rounds a day 5 days a week, and it showed! He looked sharp as a razor, and won the first 2 stages convincingly, leaving the rest of us trailing early on. His intentions are clear. As are those of defending champion, Eric Grauffel, who also shot an excellent day, making no mistakes as usual. Another hot shooter today was Junior world champion Chris Tilley. In fact, after Todd's charge early on, Chris came in to win a couple of stages back to back. My shooting was fare, but far from inspired today. I didn't quite feel comfortable, and seemed a little choppy. But - it is early days yet, and things will improve, and change for all of us. So after the 6 stages of day 1, Eric and Chris are tide for the lead, Todd is just a few points behind, with JJ Racaza close on his heals. Then Max, Jojo, myself and the top Australians bring in the rear of the leading pack. It is still rather bunched up and sure to change tomorrow.     I know very little about the other divisions, as there were no verifies up yet. I did hear that Adam Tyc was shooting great in Production and had a 25 point lead over Dave Sevigny. So that will be an interesting one to watch too. More will follow tomorrow,
Saul __________________________________________________________________ Sunday, August 21st, 14:35 local time
Greetings all from Sunny Guayaquil, Ecuador !
Since so many IPSC shooters could not be here to share in the grand experience that is a World Championships, I thought I would try to write an up to date report, and get it online, as real time as possible. I do not always get good internet access here at the hotel, but usually I can get online each day or second day. I will try to update this report from day to day. I have been here 5 days already, having come early to watch the prematch, and to decide on camera positions for all the stages. Double-Alpha Academy is producing the official movie of the match, and since I will be shooting - I have a camera man here to do the filming. I wanted to look at all the stages in advance, and decide what should be filmed and how. It was a real challenge to build a filming schedule to ensure that we will include shooters from all divisions in our production. But, after 3 hours or so of planning, we now have a program which will allow us to include the top squads in Open, Standard, Modified, Production, Revolver and Ladies Open. Of course we can't show then all on all stages., but we will show at least 6 or so stages of each. It should be a great match, and I hope an equally excellent movie. So what is Guayaquil like you wonder? Well, like many parts of the world it is a place of contrasts. Luxury homes side by side with terrible poverty. Of course, lots of security and police presents everywhere, lots of walls and fences. The people are friendly enough, and mean well, but they really do not speak English. As soon as we leave the hotel, we are back to hand signaling and gestures to try and be understood. In fact, I am surprised at the complete lack of English comprehension. I could not even get a taxi driver to understand "how long will it take?" by pointing at my watch and asking - "how long"? I guess if I spoke Spanish it would be fine... Of course, the one thing on everyone's mind is AMMO!!! All shooters had problems bringing ammo with them. The airlines are very tough these days, and it was, for most, impossible to fly with enough ammo to complete the whole match. Many shooters took up the Armscor offer to buy ammo here - BUT - there is no ammo to buy! Apparently the Armscor shipment it stuck in Panama, and may or may not arrive on time for the match. Shooters are running around desperately trying to find ammo. The USA shipment has not arrived either, held in Miami at this time. Numerous other teams sent ammo which did not make it through. It is a very sad state of affairs in this regard. The organizers are doing all they can - it remains to be seen how much of a disaster this matter turns out to be. The range is magnificent, and the stage designs and constructions are also top notch. It will not be an easy match - and I believe it will be won by those who can slow down enough to get their points. Most stages do not have very long shots, but they all have plenty of NS targets, and lots of movers. Many stages have 2 or more swingers and some stages have 40m targets as well. It will not be easy. Israel's Eli Huttner shot the prematch, and here are some video clips of some of his stages. It will give you an idea about the match. I will try to write daily and keep you all informed of how things develop here. Best regards Saul Kirsch       | 
