Shooting tourney ends, RI team misses medals

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Sanur, Bali

The eighth-day of the AustralAsia Shooting and Indonesian Shotgun Championship 2004 concluded on Saturday with local shooters managing to compete with their world-class counterparts but failing to win medals.

During the event, Indonesian hopeful Roy Heryanto ended up in 14th place in the open category, while Glen Clifton Apfel finished seventh in the revolver class.

"The results show that the Indonesian shooters are able to compete with top international shooters," organizing committee director Djoko Soeroso said.

Djoko hoped the Indonesian Shooting Association (Perbakin) would work to improve the performance of Indonesian shooters at international level.

He said Perbakin could lobby the government to ease the requirements to import practical shooting weapons and ammunition into the country.

"If such supportive policies are implemented, the performance of our shooters would improve greatly," said Djoko, himself an experienced shooter.

Some 480 participants from 32 countries competed in the week- long championship ending on Saturday, contesting in the open, revolver, standard and production categories.

World Champion Eric Grauffel of France won the prestigious open category, defeating 133 competitors in the section.

The first-to-third place winners of the event in each class were awarded with medals and money from sponsors.

Also on Saturday, on Serangan island beach, the organizer featured a shotgun exhibition.

With the completion of this championship, which was considered by many as a success, Indonesia now intended to hold the World Practical Shooting Championship in 2008, organizers said.

"This successful event will become Indonesia's selling points to hold the World Shooting Championship," Djoko said, adding that many foreign shooters had expressed their support for Indonesia's plans to bid for the event.