… from a helper’s point of view.The I. IPSC Shotgun World Shoot was held at the Apafa Shooting Range in Debrecen, Hungary. There were more than 400 competitors, including 39 women, from 23 countries. Shooting (Main Match) took place over six days. The match consisted of 30 stages. The stages, which all had something typically Hungarian, were mostly designed by Géza Puskás, director of Match.
The Hungarian national team got quite good results.
After the „official part”, something more personal about the Match
The thing is, that until a few weeks ago, I didn’t see a match like this, nor did I know, how a shotgun looks like. Of course, I could have google it, but to tell the truth, I wasn’t in the mood. I did not want this match, at all.
I didn’t even want to think to that ominous six days, when I will be a helper there.
I felt a bit more enthusiasm after I got to know the other helper I had to work at the same stage with. But this newly came enthusiasm didn’t last too long.
I felt a bit nervous when I realized, that we have to talk to the Range Officers on a foreign language.
But the first day was surprisingly good – without a whole lot of communication problems. The second day was even better. The whole week was very good.
After all, we worked with a nice German lady and an adorable, crazy Dutch man – and especially the latter tried to make the week memorable. (He did a great job.)
Meeting some extremely nice and funny people wasn’t the only good thing this Match brought for me. I began to talk to people I didn’t hear anything about since months. (It’s unbelievable how popular a photo can become, where you just try and shoot with a big gun.)
On Sunday, before the closing ceremony, I was talking to our bus driver, and he said that he is very surprised, that all this people (all the competitors) were so disciplined. Well, I think we shouldn’t expect anything else from people who are shooting such big guns (even if it’s a Hello Kitty-gun).
Competitors probably have different reasons to fly even over an ocean to be part of an event like this. But one thing is sure, most of them are really professional shooters and they are really enjoying the thing they do.
Unfortunately, the championship didn’t got much attention from the Hungarian media, althrough we should be really proud that Hungary was the host of the I. IPSC Shotgung World
Championship. The whole event was well organized and even IPSC President Nick Alexakos himself could only say positive things about the tracks.
Hopefully the event will get more media attention next time. Anyhow, most of the Hungarian sports journalists missed a milestone of sport history.
Ágnes Kovács
Thank you Agnes all helpers for supporting this very first SG WS 🙂
We all really enjoyed the match and were very pleased to see such happy faces on the range. 🙂
BR
Taisto
😀
Oh, it was a pleasure to be there 😀
Nice to hear that you had a nice time here! 🙂
Greetings from Debrecen,
Ági
Agnes what a lovely blog you wrote:-) Without people like yourself big matches like this could not function each person is just as important as the next to make it all work. The great thing is that you enjoyed it all, and it’s hard work to work at a match like this! Though as a shooter we like to shoot (obviously) we also like to meet people both old and new from all over the world at these big events. I drove to Debrecen from England ( a long drive) but we stayed at friends in Germany who we met in 2006 in Greece. At the range I also met an old friend Eduardo from Argentina and I may go and visit him next year in Buenos Aires. You got a little taste of what our shooting community brings to us all, I hope you got the bug too:-)
We loved Debrecen the city centre was very nice so were the people and there were lots of nice restaurants, we had a good time there. It’s a bloody long way to drive from England though next time I’ll fly. I couldn’t work out who the crazy Dutch RO was though, I thought they were all crazy lol.
Graham x
Thank you 🙂
Ooh, it was a nice week, really!
I’m glad that you loved this city!
It must be a really long drive from England here, but the good news is, that there is a direct flight from London to Debrecen, so you can have a much quicker journey next time 🙂
Well, this particular Dutch RO is originally from England 😛 🙂
Anyway, for some reason, since I read your comment I can’t stop smiling; it feels like reading a message from one of my penpals. 😀
Ági