Roy vies for top five finish in Bali

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Roy Haryanto won the Open Division of the Jakarta Cup practical shooting championship here on Sunday and then he set his sights on an upcoming international event.

Roy is among Indonesia's 60 contenders for the AustralAsia Championship -- an intercontinental practical shooting event -- to be held in November in Bali.

"There will definitely be strong contenders at the event. I'll try my best to finish in top five," 28-year-old Roy, who ended up finishing in 19th place in the 2002 Championship in South Africa.

One of the hot contenders in Bali will be two-time world champion Eric Grauffel of France.

Match director Djoko Soeroso said that 38 countries had notified him of their planned participation. They will bring in around 600 marksmen for the event, which will run from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1.

Djoko, who is deputy director of the Indonesian Practical Shooting Association, said that some of the Indonesian team members would be recruited based on their performance in the two- day Jakarta Cup, with 107 marksmen from Bali, Central Java, East Java, West Java and Jakarta.

The championship had four divisions: Production, Standard, Revolver and Open with medals on offer in 12 events.

In a preparation for the Bali contest, Roy said he would be heading to United States to take part in a local national championship from Sept. 15 to Sept. 19.

"Tournaments are rare here. If we want to hone our skills we have to go overseas, especially to America. They have tourneys there almost twice a month," Roy said.

The Bali event will coincide with the one-day General Assembly of the International Practical Shooting Confederation, in which representatives of 50 countries are expected to take part.

IPSC was officially founded at the International Pistol Conference in Columbia, Missouri, the U.S. in 1976, while practical shooting as a sport had its origins in California in the early 1950's.