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World Field Target Federation Championships 2011 – Italy – by Conor McFlynn


The Eighth MLAIC Long Range World


Championships Bisley England by David Minshall


World Field Target Federation Championships 2011 – Italy by Conor McFlynn


Conor McFlynn from Northern Ireland travels to Italy for the World Field Target Championship and comes home with the silverwear! But let’s hear it from Conor……


The annual WFTF Championship was held at a stunningly beautiful, mountainous location in Felo d’Astico, near Vicenza, Italy. Federazione Field Target Italia, the Italian Regional Governing Body, took sole responsibility for the organisation and running of the four-day event, headed by the Italian Chairman Nicola Paggiaro.


Registration of names and practice on the zero- range took place on the 1st September, whilst the competition ran from 2nd- 4th September with three 50 target courses - one per day giving a total of 150 targets. 212 competitors from 26 countries made this the biggest, most competitive and truly international event in the organisation’s history. 19 countries entered the 8-man team event, which demonstrates the popularity of the sport that has spread rapidly throughout the world in recent years.


The two large zero-ranges were very spacious and had plenty of boards with paper targets attached to check


rifle and scope settings. The plinking range however bore no resemblance to the competition course as it was located on a flat field - the competition course was located at the top of a vertical hill on the side of the mountain.


The three separate courses were colour-coded in relation to the Italian flag - red, white and green, 50 targets per course, two targets were placed per lane resulting in 25 lanes per course. Each competitor had three minutes to shoot their two targets, with timing commencing when the lane was entered. On each course there were eight compulsory positional targets, four standing and four kneeling. The targets were placed at unknown distances from 7m to 50m, whilst target hit zones ranged in size from 15mm, 20mm, 25mm, 30mm and 40mm.


Target placement made full use of the surroundings with the vast majority of the smaller killzones placed at extreme angles both uphill and downhill. Flexibility, adaptability and sheer nerve were required in order to take many of the positional shots that mainly used the 25mm killzones. The larger killzone targets were almost exclusively used at near maximum distance so it was a truly challenging course designed to make each shooter think very carefully about each shot. Add the devilish, interchanging, light winds whisping almost undetectably through the forest, the extremely hot, humid conditions and one can almost get a slight resemblance to the sheer difficulty of each course.


Day one, Friday 2nd September, was a long day as shooting partners were drawn together after the safety brief and general instructions. These were relayed to everyone by the event director Nicola


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