sp ort
Image: Emil Von Maltitz
ALIGN YOUR SPORT
with your values Makesurethroughoutyoursportcareerthat nobodyhastofigureoutwhoyouare.Itisa matterofcreatingyourownpersonalbrand. Andlikeanystrongbrand,youhavetoback itupbywhatyoudo.AsRomanemperors knew,thepeoplemightcomplainabouttaxes whentheygatheredinthecircus,buttheysoon shutuponcethechariotsbegantherace.Like allcomplexhumanactivities,sportsalsohave theirowninternalpolitics,witharguments overwhosetstherules,getstheperksand awards the prizes.
Issue 5 / 2010
151
sp ort
Field Target
Shooting becoming very popular in south africa FieldTarget(FT)hasbeendescribedasbeingthe“FormulaOne”ofair rifleshootingandnowonder–thetopairriflescanreachpricesinexcess of R40000. Field Target is a sport that started in Great Britain in theearly1980’s.Itwasoriginallyintendedtobeaformof“simulated hunting”wherecompetitorscouldnotonlyhonetheirshootingskillsbut alsocompeteonafriendlybasiswithotherlike-mindedindividuals.This is a sport that can be enjoyed by the whole family. Text & Images: Marius van Schalkwyk
Field Target consists of shooting at metal targets shaped like some of the most common vermin species to be found in the world. Targets are usually represented by life-size silhouettes of Rats, Rabbits, Squirrels, Crows, Bats and Pigeons. Each target has a hole that’s normally 40mm in diameter. The objective is to shoot a pellet into that 40mm hole at varying distances between 10 and 50 metres. Just to make life difficult for the shooter, the range to the target has to be estimated at the firing line, as none of the distances are known in advance and he/she needs to compensate for natural elements 152
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sp ort like the wind, as well. To further complicate matters, the “killzone” on a target can be smaller... 13mm up to 20m, 20mm to 30m and 30mm to 40m. When a shot is fired correctly, the pellet will strike a plate behind the target causing it to fall over and a point is scored. If it doesn’t, then the target is deemed to be missed. Once hit, the target is simply reset by pulling on a string that’s wound out to the firing point Field Target was started in South Africa by Jaco Human, Nick Roets, Mike Potgieter, Ziggy Liebner, and Cobus Lewis, around 2003 and despite this short time span, South Africa excelled at the last four World Championships. South Africa achieved 2nd place overall in their very first World Championship, which took place in Poland in 2006. In 2007, SA won 3rd place in America and again 2nd place in Northern Ireland in 2008. This year South Africa again finished 2nd to England. Through the efforts of the SAFTAA Committee, under the leadership of Johan Jansen, who is currently the chairman of both SAFTAA (South African Field Target Airgun Association) and the WFTF (World Field Target Federation), South Africa was selected to host the 2009 World Field Target Championships. The 2009 World Field Target Championships were held at Mutango Lodge north east of Pretoria over the period 25 – 27 September. This was the first time that the Worlds were hosted outside of Great Britain/Europe/the USA. The event was organised by the South African Field Target Airgun Association (SAFTAA), with sponsorship from the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality. Entries were received from eleven countries, with seven international teams competing in the team event. South African athletes again excelled in this event, with our Protea team finishing second, only 21 points (out of 600) behind England. Germany finished third with Wales in a close fourth. The English team members have a combined experience of over sixty years in field target shooting, compared to our Protea team’s less than fifteen years. In the individual open class two English shooters finished in joint first place, with James Woodhead winning the shoot-out against John Costello and becoming the 2009 World Champion. Two Proteas, David Combrink and Hennie Breytenbach achieved the joint second highest scores in this class. Our juniors took all the top places with Francois du Toit from WP becoming the 2009 Junior World Champion. In the Ladies class SA also took the top five places with Erica Fourie (last year’s third place winner) becoming the 2009 World Ladies champion. Alan Keyser of SA became the 2009 Veteran class winner. In the springer class another South African World Champion was crowned – Sean Orsmond won this event, finishing one point ahead of Paul James from England. Adrian Smuts of SA finished first in the Veteran class for springer. The 2009 World Field Target Championships was an unqualified success, and our international guests hailed it as the best Worlds event ever. They say that South Africa has raised the bar as far as the World Championships are concerned, and that this standard would be difficult to match in future. The 2010 World Field Target Championships will be held in Hungary, and
our SA shooters aim to improve even further upon the excellent results that we achieved this year. Two South African youngsters ie. Francois du Toit, a 14 year old scholar at Vrijzee High School in Parow, Western Cape and Lindy van Schalkwyk, a 12 year old scholar at Eversdal Primary School in Durbanville, Western Cape, also participated in the 2009 World Field Target Championships, which is proof of the interest in the sport, that exists among young shooters. As mentioned above, although Francois is only 14 years of age, he was crowned as the U17 South African champion earlier this year and also became the U17 World Champion for 2009. As if this was not enough he achieved 21st place overall. This is a truly remarkable achievement and he is definitely knocking on the door for Protea colours in 2010. Lindy van Schalkwyk started with air rifle shooting when she was only 9 years of age and immediately indicated signs that she can hit the killzone on the targets. All newcomers to the FT sport in South Africa are encouraged to start in the NFT (Novice Field Target) division, which is more lenient towards new shooters to the sport, due to the fact that new shooters gets 1 point for a hit on the face plate of the targets and 2 points for a knockdown of the target. Bi-Pods are further allowed to be used by all youngsters under the age of 13 to support the air rifle. Although this is a very popular division, shooters can unfortunately not obtain their Provincial colours, neither qualify to participate in the National Trials to have a change to obtain Protea colours. To
obtain Protea colours, shooters needs to shoot in the open Field Target class. After shooting for about 2 years, Lindy indicated to her dad, that she would like to participate in the open FT leagues, so as to have the opportunity to obtain her Provincial Colours. This was even more strongly supported when one of the adult shooters at the league shoots admitted to her dad that, quote “it is becoming embarrassing to shoot with Lindy” due to the fact that this 11 year girl was shooting far higher scores (on average 10 to 20 point better) than a man’s ego goes. As is the case with all shooting that starts in the big leagues, Lindy started in the Issue 5 / 2010
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sp ort bottom D-Class and after she obtained her gold medal, moved into the C-Class after only three months. Lindy is currently also competing against all other open class shooters and not in her age group. Although Lindy has not qualified for her provincial colours as yet (Provincial colours is only issued in March every year), she achieved 86th place overall in the recent worlds and was only 2 shots behind the German shooting partner that shot with her on the last day. Lindy will still be able to shoot another 4 years in this age category and we will follow her career with great interest. What makes Francois and Lindy’s achievement so remarkable is that they had to endure very tough environmental shooting conditions i.t.o., wind, rain, cold, heat and the fact that
the shooting course, (1,4km long), was laid out in mountainous terrain with 50 targets that had to be shot per day, over a three day period. Although the sport is relatively new in South Africa, Field Target has grown extremely fast in the last couple of years and there are currently clubs all over South Africa. This is, to a large extent, due to the fact that no license is required for air rifles in South Africa. One is, however, bound by the rules as stipulated under the Fire Arms Control Act of South Africa, which indicate that no air rifle may be fired within a residential area. Therefore, to find a club near you or if you would like to become involved in this exciting sport, please visit the SAFTAA website at www.saftaa.co.za. •
The South African Field Target Airgun Association:
who we are
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The Air Arms distributors in South Africa, together with local enthusiasts, initiated Field Target in South Africa during November 2002. A meeting was called and air rifle field target shooting was born in South Africa. Pioneers like Jaco Human, Nick Roets, Mike Potgieter, Ziggy Liebner, and Cobus Lewis, together with Air Arms started to introduce field target on shows and presented competitions and team building exercises. During 2003 a few clubs where formed, Pretoria Field Target, Leeuwkop Field target (Midrand) and one in Boksburg. Wolwehoek Field Target (Sasolburg) was formed in 2004.These clubs joined forces, compiled and penned the rules and constitution and assisted other like minded people to establish other clubs. During August 2003 Air Arms and SA Hunters received a visit from four United Kingdom shooters and the first non-official international competition was held. They shared their knowledge and experience with the participants and a healthy relationship developed with long lasting friendships and camaraderie being established on international level. At the start of 2005 a meeting was called to consolidate the individual clubs, interested and affected parties, to form the South African Field Target Airgun Association (SAFTAA). SAFTAA in its wisdom has taken the decision to associate itself to the South African Air Rifle Association (SAARA) to promote field target amongst other disciplines but also gain formal recognition from the South African Shooting Sport Federation (SASSF). SAFTAA is the National Governing Body (NGB) for South Africa with the World Field Target Federation (WFTF), the body that governs World Field Target Championships. The WFTF currently has 22 member countries (NGB’s) affiliated to it.
Kwa-Zulu Natal and Free State, with a further seven FT Clubs joined SAFTAA.
Current ranking During the 2006 World Cup Field target competition held in Poland, South Africa achieved a 2nd place overall. In 2007 our Protea Shooting Team finished 3rd in Pulaski, Tennessee, and this year 2nd again in Armagh, Northern Ireland.
Present SAFTAA executive committee:
Growth rates 2006 saw the founding of additional clubs in the sport. Alberton Ft, Wonderboom and Airgun Fanatix (AGF) in Benoni. The most dynamic club being AGF, with an astonishing growing membership. During 2007 Dirt Ryders Club was established, and in 2008 three new provinces, namely Western Province,
Secretary – Nadene Richter – nadene6@absamail.co.za 083 309-8868 (West Rand)
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Youth development Wonderboom FT club is the leader in this regard. They actively promote participation by youth from all cultural backgrounds. Their monthly club events cater strongly for youthful participation. They have a very strong base of junior shooters. So dedicated are they to the development of young shooters, that they have actually based their club on the Wonderboom High School grounds in Tshwane ( Pretoria ). During 2008 the Voortrekkerhoogte High School were also recruited for the development of young shooters from especially the previously disadvantaged communities. The school and parents have limited funds available, and SAFTAA has submitted a request to the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality for financial assistance to buy more rifles for use by the school (on loan from SAFTAA). World championships Thanks to the high standard of competency amongst our shooters and excellent track record at International events, South Africa has been awarded the World Championship for 2009. This World Championship event will be held in the Tshwane region over a three day period from 25 to 27 September 2009. We are expecting excellent international and local press coverage, as has been the norm at all the international based events to date. This will be a major opportunity for us to showcase the sport in Tshwane and develop it both internationally and locally.
Chairman – Johan Jansen – johanjan@telkomsa.net 083 305-8943 (Centurion) Vice Chairman – Gerhard Strydom - gestrydom@justice.gov.za 084 510-1413 (Heidelberg)
Technical Officer – Errol Mann - errol@lappcable.co.za 082 322-9031 (West Rand) Treasurer – Allan Riedel - ariedel@mweb.co.za 083 632-5286 (East Rand)