The World Benchrest
Championships in France By Vince Bottomley
It was a great evening with the many speeches and presentations going on until after midnight. Popular WBSF President Graeme Smith retired after 10 years and our new President is Francois Luciani, a benchrest shooter from Luxembourg. All that was left was to wish our benchrest friends ‘bon voyage’ until the next time we meet - in Australia in 2013.
If any UK based shooters have any aspirations to get into benchrest competition, please visit the UKBRA website at
www.ukbra.co.uk
Moving and aligning wind-flags at the end of every day is a time- consuming but essential task
Light Varmint Grand Aggregate: Mike Ratigan (USA) – best GB: Steve Newman 33rd Heavy Varmint Grand Aggregate: Gene Bukys (USA) – best GB: Vince Bottomley 15th
Although individual results are a great ego boost, it’s the Two Gun Aggregate that counts -Page 11 illustrates the top twenty.
Teams The three USA teams were of course populated with the ‘greats’ of benchrest and what’s more, the Aussies were without Annie and Stuart Elliott – two of their top shooters – absent for the first time in many years.
In the end, it all went to plan and two of the three American Teams stood on the podium to receive the gold and silver medals but a plucky Italian Team took the bronze, pushing the Australians down to fourth place.
Fun Shoot & Dinner
Just in case two days of practise and four days of intense competition left you wanting more, there is a 200m fun shoot on the Saturday which does not form part of the ‘Worlds’ but is traditionally held after every Championship. Canada’s Bill Michell took the win but again the Brits had a good result with Martin Miles and Tom Morris in eighth and ninth places.
On the Saturday evening , we have the shoot dinner and prize presentation. With an entry of 160 shooters plus friends, a venue capable of holding around 200 would be hard to find in this rural area. Fortunately, the local sports centre was available and catering was carried out by those running the excellent on-range restaurant so a fine selection of French cuisine was on offer.
(Above) ‘This is Canadian shooter Vera Carter. She was my partner for the week and won the first 100m match.’
(Left) This is 12 year old Mario Coetzer from South Africa – the month before he was in America shooting at the World Rimfire Benchrest Championships
Our Saturday evening shoot dinner and prize presentation. With an entry of 160 shooters plus friends, a venue capable of holding around 200 would be hard to find in this rural area.
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