|
Monday, August 08, 2005
Rama: Imports
By Karlon N. Rama
Stage five
DON’T look now but a handful of athletes within the US delegation to Ecuador’s World Shoot, which runs from Aug. 21 to 28, come from the good-old P.I.
A Sugbuanon, Reynaldo Duterte Abad, is at the head of the pack of individual entrants with Athena Lee, Simon “JJ” Racaza and KC Eusebio, together with some others.
Abad is a National Rifle Association (NRA)-certified firearms instructor. He holds classes as well as serves as the chief range officer at the American Shooting Centers (ASC), a shooting-sport complex at the Westheimer Parkway in Houston, Texas.
The US Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) “master” holds a couple of top-spot titles, among them the ones obtained in the 2004 Columbus Cup in Nicaragua, the Copa Camaron in Ecuador and the 2005 Panama Open. He also competed in the recent Costa Rica Open and the Space City Challenge in Houston.
Rey, brother of ABC 21’s Ed Abad, came home to Cebu a few months ago and, in a conversation over lunch, vowed to stitch a patch of the Philippine flag into his jersey just for the World Shoot.
It isn’t important for which team he’ll be playing, he said, because it is still a pure Filipino behind the trigger.
Joining him, Lee, Racaza and Eusebio will be Sheryl Cruz, Lee Dimaculangan, Roderico Ganac, Edwin Garcia, Nestor Laserna and Johnny Lim of Limcat Customs.
Lee is the 1999 World Women’s Open champion. She moved to the US in 2000 and took a job coaching shooters at ASC.
Two years later, she became the US speed-shooting champion. It was a title she would hold until 2004, after losing to two-time speed champion Kay Clark-Miculek, wife of revolver-king Jerry Miculek.
While Eusebio was the 2003 speed-shooting champion. He lost the title to Japanese shooter Tetsuya Sakai last year but, together with Lee, has a chance to reclaim it come September.
The rest are top-grade shooters who’ve also held a string of titles.
Rey got into shooting at a young age but did not go into serious competition until he migrated to the US, particularly Texas, with his family.
The conditions in his new home – ammo is cheap and aplenty and government restrictions governing firearms is practically nil – were just perfect for the game.
Half a hemisphere away, the Philippine Team continues its training for the biennial shooting event.
The 17-member team, led by former world-champions Jeufro “Jag” Lejano and Jerome Morales, together with team coach Jojo Naranjilla and training-director Vic Mangibin, will leave for Ecuador on the 14th.
The pressure is up but Lito Ladroma, the lone Cebuano in the national team, still found the time to return home yesterday and participate in the club shoot hosted by the Casey Gun Club in Lapu-Lapu City.
EGG SHOOTS ANYONE? It began with Roy Bertalotto’s search for the ultimate in precision shooting targets – one that rewards accuracy with a malevolent display of viscera gushing out but requires no after-the-match cleanup. He shot at eggs.
Now it’s a regular pistol and rifle event held twice a year in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. People who have enough balls (no pun intended) for 100-yard shooting queue for hours just to get into the competition.
The match involves three relays of five eggs each being lined up in various distances.
For rifles with iron sights, the shortest distance is 100 yards. For those with scopes, the distances used are up to 300 yards. All shooting is done off the bench and any form of rest – bench rests or bipods – is allowed.
There is also no restriction as to the caliber of gun used or to the power of the scope attached to the rifle.
In the pistol event, maximum target distance is placed at the 100-yard line. A pistol scope of up to nine times is allowed.
The procedure is straightforward. People go to the firing line and prepare to scramble eggs (there’s that unintended pun again). They have 10 minutes to shoot and 10 rounds to fire in each five-target relay.
The shooter who hits the most number of eggs with the least number of rounds wins. A score of five for five is perfect for a relay and 15 for 15 is perfect in a game.
“Sighter” shots are allowed, as there are “sighter targets” in each “egg station,” but these count against the 10-shot limit.
Ties are broken by sudden-death shootout. Each shooter in the sudden-death shoot-off fires on a series of eggs in turn until someone misses.
We don’t have 100-yard ranges here but I’m sure an egg at 35 yards is already challenge enough.
DOWNRANGE. As mentioned, the Casey Gun Club hosted a shoot yesterday. It was a six-stage event.
The top spots in the Standard division went to Casey’s Benson Yu, followed by Dino Cinco of the Cebu Pistol and Rifle Association (CPRA) and Yogi Javier.
In the 9mm-only event, the Production division top spot went to Dino Ang, also of Casey Gun Club, and teammate Alex Manzano. CPRA’s Leo Sibi landed third.
In the Open division, it was Casey’s Ric Bono on the top of the game with CPRA’s Tiak and brothers Jonathan and Justin Chua, Jeffrey Alce of Casey and Joe Montalavan of Kamagong Gun Club Inc.
The rest of the winners are Vic Jarina of CPRA, Romy Un in the Modified division and William Torrefiel, of Casey, in the Revolver match.
(knrama@sunstar.com.ph)
(August 8, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
