Greetings all, I am just back from Czech and the 2008 Extreme Euro Open - and I am still catching my breath! What a spectacular event this was! It is not often that match organizers take on the challenge of hosting a 30 stage match for over 600 shooters. In fact, not even the European championships could match this event for stage and round count. we shot over 550 rounds - and it was a blast! Competitors came from all over Europe and from as far away as South Africa, Canada and the USA to attend this match, and they were all in agreement that it was well worth the effort. The international attendance helped to add to the atmosphere of a truly "Bigger than level III" event. I don't envy the organizes and RO's the huge task they undertook, and it did seem that they ran out of steam a little towards the end of the event, canceling the planned shoot-off due to shear exhaustion of the RO's and crews, and well as poor attendance on the Sunday morning the shoot-off was planned. This would also be my one negative comment - it was a mistake, I think, to try and plan the shoot off the day AFTER the awards, when the match it totally over and everyone wants to start the long trip home early. This part of the event, I feel , was destined to fail from the start. The stages were excellent! Not only that, but we got to shoot 10 stages a day, in a half day schedule - which ran like clockwork - no delays, and no waiting. the RO's worked hard, and kept everything running smoothly and on schedule, without even a lunch break for themselves. The first squads started at 8 and were done by 2pm, and the afternoon groups started at 2 and were done by 8pm. 10 stages in 6 hours. no bad at all! Everything was on schedule that is, until the BIG storm Saturday afternoon. (well, they did say "Extreme" did they not?!). Around 4pm the skies grew black and the rain came done in buckets, along with marble size hail and forceful winds which ripped down all the targets, and threatened to lift off the party tents we were hiding under. Luck would have it that my squad was shooting that afternoon, and all we could do was huddle under the disintegrating tent, try to hold it together and over our heads, and try to keep our range bags from drowning, as the rain came in sideways. After the storm passed, the stages were fixed up, some of the puddles dried out, and we were back shooting, to finish only about an hour behind schedule, and before dark. it was, however, an "extreme" afternoon of shooting. "Extreme" came into play on some of the stages as well. Our first stage, stage 4, was one of the longest stages I have seen in a long while, forcing the shooting to run through a maze of about 60-70m long, and shoot 32 rounds at some tough targets. the best shooters could not break 30seconds, so the hit factor was low on this one. Many of the stages offered a challenge, with lots of small plates, many many swingers, and even a couple of long distance movers. But there was plenty of "up close and personal" shooting as well, which is always great fun for all. I had the pleasure to shoot with our entire STI Euro team, and joining us was Eric Grauffel and Emile's father Thierry, so we had a top notch squad of shooters. it really was a fun event In contrast to our excellent time on the range - our hotel was a disappointment. it was not my first choice, and I did not have high hopes, but it was a lot worse than that. old and shabby. I would not recommend hotel Dukla in Znojno, and will certainly not stay they again. Enough said. So at the end of 3 full and thoroughly enjoyable days of shooting, these were the top 10 in the main three divisions: Open
1 100,00 2705,4355 323 Grauffel, Eric FRA
2 94,92 2568,1191 112 Kirsch, Saul ISR
3 92,48 2502,0087 329 Ballesteros, Jorge ESP
4 86,43 2338,3535 122 Havlicek, Miroslav CZE
5 84,42 2283,9340 63 Kamenicek, Martin CZE
6 83,87 2268,9739 233 Szakacz, Alex CAN
7 83,29 2253,4150 465 OBRIOT, Emile FRA
8 82,98 2245,0134 860 REMY, DEVILLE FRA
9 82,47 2231,0891 121 Pijacek, Petr CZE
10 81,80 2213,0774 97 Schneider, Patrik SUI Production
1 100,00 2615,4030 125 Tyc, Adam CZE
2 92,83 2427,8964 130 Vysny, Marian CZE
3 92,07 2407,9136 231 Hobdell, Angus USA
4 89,20 2332,8521 830 Brocanelli, Paolo ITA
5 87,62 2291,5651 239 Momcilovic, Ljubisa SER
6 87,00 2275,3473 214 Nagy, Ernest SVK
7 85,33 2231,7979 686 686Zapletal, Miroslav CZE
8 85,02 2223,6678 146 Liehne, Jan CZE
9 83,57 2185,7537 3 Palka, Jan SVK
10 83,37 2180,3912 377 Schraner, Remo SUI Standard
1 100,00 2512,5008 327 Damm, Oliver GER
2 99,62 2502,9842 821 JAIME, JUAN CARLOS ESP
3 99,23 2493,0797 850 SANTARCANGELO, ADRIANO ITA
4 98,55 2476,0148 412 Znamenacek, Petr CZE
5 97,49 2449,5471 241 Burrell, Mike CAN
6 96,02 2412,4337 232 Podlesak, Roman CZE
7 95,61 2402,2876 378 Midgley, Gregory GER
8 94,46 2373,4293 620 Batki, Gyorgy HUN
9 93,64 2352,6267 208 Jensen, Ralf K. DEN
10 92,35 2320,2592 123 Liehne, Zdenek CZE
As always I have my sponsors to thank for their support
STI International
Fiocchi
Hornady
Competitive Edge Dynamics (CED)
Aimpoint
Vihtavuori
MSA Sordin Until the next time I wish you all excellent shooting.
Saul Kirsch | Pictures 
The ever growing DAA booth at the match. 
Barry Pollard, the quad helping him to be everywhere all at once. he had his hands full for sure... 
The STI Euro Team muddied after the rain. 
The lucky competitors who were close enough to the main tent to take cover when the storm hit.
Movies: Greg Emile Saul Herbert Ralf
|
