IPSC AFRICA AREA CHAMPS IN ZIMBABWE
IPSC AFRICAN AREA CHAMPIO0NSHIPS IN ZIMBABWE
I J Larivers
“Are you ready?" "Stand by!" "Beep!" And so began each stage of the 2012 Practical Pistol Africa Area Championships held in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe over three days this September, 2012.
The Africa Area Handgun Championships of the International Practical Shooting Confederation is an IPSC Level IV match which is just one step below a world championship. It is held every three years in Africa in the year following the IPSC world shoot, and has, until now, been most ably hosted by South Africa. Zimbabwe was awarded its first All Africa match in 2000 - the year that country embarked upon its 'farmageddon policy'. International competitors' doubts about Zimbabwe's stability resulted in the match being hastily transferred to South Africa.
Zimbabwe sent strong squads to successive Africa Area matches in Durban in 2003, Polokwane in 2006, and Welkom in 2009. At the Welkom match Zimbabwe made a successful bid to host the 2012 match at Bulawayo's Donnington Practical Pistol Club. The club has excellent facilities and, as a bonus, is close to the South African border. Even though the competition was three years away, Zimbabwe's Regional Director Tara Maidwell, a veteran of four world championship shoots, began work immediately to organize local and foreign sponsorship, range expansion and development, a cadre of enthusiastic range officials, and the myriad other administrative tasks that lead up to a successful event.
Despite the negative publicity that surrounded Zimbabwe, the country's Sports & Recreation Commission and Central Firearms Registry were one hundred percent behind the match and gave their wholehearted support. The end result was a 24-stage shoot, requiring a minimum of 426 rounds, which was shot over 12-14 September. South African and Namibian officials arrived early and conducted Level I and II range officers' seminars for interested Zimbabweans, and the officials shot the two-day pre-shoot to iron out any last minute difficulties and free them to officiate during the main match.
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Tara Maidwell served as Match Director, while Jorn Schmidt-Dumont from Namibia offered his very capable services as Range Master ably assisted by Fred Scott from South Africa. Rita Stockbridge from South Africa ran the Stats Office as only she can, effortlessly and efficiently, and Louise Groenewald, also from South Africa, assisted. A total of 111 shooters from Australia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, Lithuania, Namibia, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United States participated in the shoot, which was hailed as "as good as a world championship".
Competitors entered in four of the five IPSC divisions - Open, Standard, Production and Classic. The range designs were Africa-themed, and each course of fire was a different and demanding challenge of a competitor's shooting skills, and mental agility - most of the trials had numerous possible solutions depending on the individual's strengths and weaknesses. In a sport where the top five places may be separated by little more than a percentage point, staying at the top, especially over three There was much emphasis placed on moving and reactive targets. Stage 1, 'Mind the Gorge', for instance, was a long 32-round course which featured a fast-paced combination of static, disappearing, swinging and running targets, and required the competitor to cross and balance on a giant see-saw whilst engaging targets on all sides. Stage 20, 'Zebra Crossing', required the shooter to fire twelve rounds at a combination of steel and paper targets whilst trying to balance on two swinging panels suspended off the ground by chains. Stage 21, 'Croc Gorge', saw the competitor engaging six targets while seated in a boat that was enthusiastically rocking back and forth like a porch swing, which was surprisingly easy once you got around the mind game. Other stages were simply fun, like Stage 3, 'Rain Forest', where the shooter fired twelve rounds at a number of targets whilst remaining underneath a mock-up of the Victoria Falls bridge, complete with a sprinkler system for the rain forest effect, and that was a very welcome respite from the hot daytime temperatures! Or Stage 17, 'Bush Pilot', the competitor was called upon to fire nine accurate shots across an arc of 180 degrees while tightly strapped in an airplane seat. Stages 6 and 7, 'Fuel Woes' were repetitions of the same nine round course of fire which tested your ability to shoot with firstly the strong hand and then the weak hand, unsupported. A good stage in a Practical Pistol match will provide options, in other words, there is more than one way of shooting it, and stages like 16, 'Lion's Lair' rewarded good marksmen who were confident of hitting small steel plates at long range. True, you were given the option of moving closer, but since your final point score is divided by the time it takes you to shoot the stage, choices like this must be weighed carefully. At the end of the match, seven shooters had been disqualified for safety infractions and the remaining 104 could reflect back on three days of challenging courses of fire, time spent with good friends new and old, and perhaps heave a sigh of relief that they had made it through unscathed. Experienced range officers like Jorn Schmidt-Dumont, Daan Kemp and Vaughan Stockwell led the team who ensured that a very professional standard of range safety and sportsmanship prevailed. And Zimbabwe was privileged to be able to call on the experience of competitors like Namibia's Regional Director Rico Viljoen and South Africa's Gerrit Dokter for advice and assistance. When the dust had settled, Pierre Wrogemann from South Africa won the Open Division shooting an SPS 9mm to accrue 1925.9384 match points, while silver and bronze went respectively to Martin Kamenicek of the Czech Republic with 1920.5469 points, shooting a CZ 9mm and Dirk Becker from South Africa who scored 1611.2868 with his STI .38 Super. In Standard Division, South Africa swept the board, with Muhammed Kolia the clear winner shooting an STI .40 S&W to score 1971.9781 points ahead of Justin Peacock with 1822.3047 scored with his Para Ordnance .40 S&W, and Heinrich Dance who shot 1773.3066 points also using a .40 S&W Para Ordnance pistol. Top honours in Production Division went to Miroslav Zapletal from the Czech Republic who shot a 9mm CZ Shadow to great effect scoring 2045.3639 points. South Africans Heinrich Patzen and Louis Keyter scored 1862.4226 and 1787.0328 points respectively for second and third places, shooting a CZ Shadow and a CZ 75. And lastly, in the then-fledgling Classic Division, Gerrit Dokter from South Africa won the gold with a score of 2015.4808 points shooting a Colt .45ACP, Vaughan Stockwell of Australia placed second with a Kimber .38 Super and a score of 1809.4999, and also shooting the venerable Colt .45 South Africa's Fred Scott scored 1263.5290 (and perhaps it could be said that the shooters in Classic Division were venerable as well, as with the exception of Vaughan they were all Seniors).
This shoot followed on the heels of the Africa Area Bench Rest Rifle championship, which was hosted by Cleveland Pistol Club in Harare in August and also attracted a number of competitors from South Africa and Namibia. Through a combination of hard work and attention to detail, Zimbabwean shooters are proving that the country has what it takes to host major international shooting events again, and also that it is possible to gain enthusiastic support for them from government departments like the police and Central Firearms Registry, long may it continue.
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