Extreme Sniper competition - Italy 2018
This has been one of the highlights of the season for us. And we've been preparing for it. The name of the competition is well deserved. It's really an extreme ...
23 teams from eight European countries participated. The Czech teams were two. We were divided into four groups and we were dealing with most of the tasks within the group. We did not meet the other teams so we had no idea how they were going ...
Within our group was a great atmosphere and a very friendly environment. We were cheering each other and all of us enjoyed the success of others. In our group we were with the other Czech team and our colleagues from Slovenia who finished second. They were just good and watching them was a joy and a lesson...
The vast majority of the shooting was from difficult and unstable positions and we did not know the distance to the targets. We had to find them first measure the distance make corrections and then hit it. All within short time limits ...
The difficulty of shooting was really high this year. In the picture the Polish team shoots at targets at 585 and 620 meters ... standing ... without the possibility of communication between themselves (and any corrections) ... in the wind ... in a very short time ...
Our preparation and focus on unstable positions has paid off. We were not good as we should from the prone and we made other mistakes. But for example - shooting from standing position without support at 200 meters in a time limit of 15 seconds - we have shined there. I do not know how many teams had a double-hit but according to the referees we were the only one who managed it in a synchronous way and in 10 sec... Standing ovations from the judges does not happen every day...
The dreaded and demanding part with moving and camouflage we nailed. But it was hard work and at that time we were almost at the end of our strength. Not only we were not spotted but we managed to hit the right target and it was not an easy hit...
The background construction was crazy. And shooting from it even more - it was unstable as hell. One shooter through the tire. The other prone on the suspended board waiting for a partner's hit and then shot. Eventually both synchronous shot from the ropes... Time was crazy for everything together. Distance unknown - 480m! I do not understand how, but we did it!
Fatigue and exhaustion played its role. Photo before last discipline. And it stood for it ... Six shots from the shotgun then running (in our case a pure fight for our lives) into a terrible hill. At the top the first shooter shot 15 rounds from a pistol at the paper targets (with some stupid hostages in the way). The other with the rifle from standing position from the barricade. The target was 535 meters far! After that terrible hill climb... Veronika was shooting and the barricade was so tall she had to stand on her toes and my feet under her heels. I also had to help her stabilize the position a bit. The referees supposedly have not seen it yet ... Finally not only we did it within the time limit but we also had a full-house of hits! Even here the judges did not resist emotions...
It should be said that the whole competition had to be done with complete equipment. Several mad hills included. Even in a time limit and even including crawling and shooting related - also in the time limit... Our weapons weigh - 6.8 kg Veronicas Ruger and 8.7 kg my Remington. And we had 14 kg and 20 kg backpacks. We were keeping the water bottles full all the time - we took the water from the pond (the cleaning tablets worked) so the weight did not change much...
Our final result - fifth place !!! it's like a dream. And most of all - Veronica showed a fantastic performance. Both shooting and physical. At the start of the competition some shooters could not believe that women participated (and the other Czech team was mixed). After we finished and the announcement of the result the girls will be not underestimated again...
We would like to thank the organizers for a great competition and our friends from our group for a great atmosphere. It was incredible experience, thanks.
