TargetTalk

This last weekend we had what we call "on-line national matches", for air pistol and rifles, plus open sight spring rifles, in an effort to bring more people into the game.

Brazil is, in practice, bigger than the US, since it costs a lot more to travel around. It is expensive by air and by car, and the roads are, in the opinion of an american friend, suspension testing roads.

That said, you can realize how difficult it is to participate in the national ranking. With these on-line matches you can shoot in (now in the beginning, in 5 different locations) or near your place.

The results are fed into an internet system, run by the national shooting confederation, and come back inserted in the national panorama, that can be shown on a bigger screen.

With this system, a para-athlete shot a Brazilian record for his class, shooting here in the South. Without it, he would have to travel cross country (South/North), a full day travel by plane, running the risk of having his guns retained by some misinformed security officer.

The first five shooters of the national ranking will have to be present and shoot together in the main match (good I'm not among them: I live in the extreme South and the central match was done in the extreme North. Roughly 4.000km in a straight line).

Until the end of this year, more places will be included, but still only compressed air. Some international deal is being cooked to have, let's say, the Chileans or Colombians (and whoever we can drag in) and have the results published all over in a few minutes.

Another 6 matches are schedulled until October. The future is the inclusion of all the olimpic modalities plus the entry event, the open sighted spring rifles.

If it is of any interest to someone, I'll give more details.

Cheers

Seconding Jacques's post, the whole process worked very smoothly, despite a few unexpected bugs cropping up (like a faulty target scanner). I participated in the Olympic Air Rifle event, for Sao Paulo state based shooters this was held in the shooting range of the Brazilian Air Force Academy in Pirassununga (roughly 125 miles NE of Sao Paulo city). Again, the whole event went very smoothly, there are a few things to be "tweaked" before the next event, nothing grave or very important, however. In an age of increased gas prices and post-9/11 security paranoia, this system could be of high interest for American shooters, as it cuts a lot of the travel costs and hassles, and would open the Nationals to a larger number of shooters which otherwise would be deterred from participating on cost grounds. Mind you, American travel costs don't even come near to ours - to travel from Sao Paulo to Fortaleza (roughly 1900 miles NE), where the central event was held, would have cost the same as travelling from Sao Paulo to Mexico City!!!!!!! Guess where I'm going for my next holidays???? :-D

Cheers,
Nicholas Burman
ADDG - Sao Paulo, Brazil, South America