NAMIBIA finished seventh overall, while Dirk Sauber also came seventh in the individual category at the 2022 Precision Rifle World Championships that was recently held in Bitche, France.
Close to 250 competitors from 26 countries participated in the event, while Sauber, Keiran Mans, Janus van der Merwe and Johannes Liebenberg represented Namibia, with Kevin Fick joining the team as an individual. All five shooters participated in the Open Class.
Precision rifle shooting can be described as rifle shooting (bolt action) from multiple shooting positions (up to 10 different positions) with a high round count (8-12 shots) within a limited time (90-120 seconds) on steel plates ranging from 250m to 1 200m.
The course of fire included 19 stages each day, with a total count of 174 scoring rounds.
Day one got off to a good start for most of the Namibian team except for Liebenberg who had a technical issue on his very first stage. This was however soon resolved and from there on it was business as usual.
By the end of the first day, Namibia was lying in the sixth position (just behind South Africa), with Sauber lying in eighth position individually, while the rest of the team members were all lying within the top 50 of the Open Class.
"As a team, we could not have asked for better support from back home, with our results being shared on the association's social media platform while following the live scoring. The following and motivation was amazing," the Namibia Practical Precision Shooting Association (NPPSA) said in a press release.
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The second day of shooting brought similar windy hot weather with winds gusting up to 45km per hour which made for extremely tough shooting conditions, but when the dust settled that evening, Namibia had done what it had come to do.
Sauber finished in seventh position overall, while the rest of the team was again all lying within the top 50 individually. In the team competition Namibia finished seventh overall a great effort which gained the respect of their fellow competitors.
To conclude proceedings, it was announced that the next World Championships will be held in South Africa in 2024, where Namibia will once again compete.
People who would like to take up precision rifle shooting in Namibia can contact Sauber at [email protected]
A fun shoot will be organised in September to introduce newcomers to the sport, while details will be communicated soon.
The NPPSA thanked the following sponsors who made their participation possible:
JM Recovery Services, Namib Roos Transport, Hollard Namibia, WCE, Generic Electronic Solutions, Gerrit Esterhuyse, A Rosenthal, Agra (Safari Den), Benchmark Retirement Fund and Auas Motors.
