Shooting tourney ends, RI team misses medals

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.