2006 300 Metre World Championships - Zagreb Croatia 21 July - 5 August

By Maris Taylor

The international organizing body for all shooting disciplines, the ISSF, holds the World Championships every four years. In 2006, the World Championships were held in Zagreb, Croatia with 1996 individual competitors representing 97 countries, in pistol, shot gun and rifle.  In addition, there were over 3000 officials and volunteers to support the competition.   In the 300 Metre Rifle event alone, there were 36 teams from countries all over the world.

The 300m World Championship team was selected from the best four finals scores out of six competitions, shot in three states to produce a three person team. The original team consisted of Brian Patsky, Warren Potent and Maris Taylor. Unfortunately for Brian, his mother became ill a weak before departure and Brian withdrew from the team. David Hollister replaced Brian at short notice and made significant alterations to his holiday plans, coming from England to join the team.

Originally the team was to fly from Sydney to Zagreb for four days practice on the range before continuing onto Switzerland for more training. Hassles with airlines meant that Warren and Maris didn’t leave until three days after the designated departure and had only one jet lagged day of training at Zagreb before continuing onto Zurich. With cancellations, delays and re-routing, Warren and Maris spent the equivalent of 24 hours in the first week of travelling in airport lounges, waiting.

In Switzerland, Warren and Maris travelled to Walenstadt and stayed in the army base, an hour drive east of Zurich. The army range has 50m rifle and pistol downstairs and a 20 target 300m range upstairs. (one of four hundred and fifty 300m ranges in Switzerland, 90% of which use electronic targets)

Training usually consisted of live firing in the morning and training on the Noptel in the afternoon. The tedium of training was relieved by units of Swiss soldiers turning up to practice using their automatic weapons or the neighbouring ranges with 20mm machine guns interspersed with tank fire and the occasional dust cloud or just the Swiss army helicopter landing on the range while we were live firing.

Warren left after the first week (something about 50m World Championships he was competing in) leaving Maris a weak to train and travel by himself before David arrived with his wife Christina. Because of travel restrictions, David couldn’t bring his own rifle to Switzerland from England and had to borrow a Tanner rifle to train with while at Walenstadt. David’s rifle was gratefully transported to Zagreb by Gordon DeGroen for his use in the matches.

Without the generous assistance of Joseph Fischlin the Switzerland leg of the trip would not have been as enjoyable and successful and all members of the team agree that Joseph’s hospitality is second to none.

Returning to Zagreb, the team had few days prior to the start of the 300m matches to acclimatize to the European summer of above 30°C. The range at Zagreb has the same firing point for 300m and 50m with 45 firing points for 300m.

On the day of the teams match, David and Warren were squadded in the first detail. David started with a 97 for his first string before recovering with a very creditable 594. Warren shot an excellent 598, a personal best at 300m and equalling the Australian record for 300m. In the second detail, Maris shot a 595 with a couple of hundreds to finish, recording a team aggregate of 1787.   This is an Australian, Oceania and Commonwealth Shooting Federation record score.

After a nervous wait for the other teams to finish, the Australian 300m team came third behind Sweden 1790 and Norway 1792. A very commendable effort given the standard of facilities that the 300m team competes on in Australia, compared to other nations and all the disruptions prior to and during travelling to Europe.

Unfortunately the individual competition the following day was an emotional let down with neither team member performing to their potential, David was the best of the Australians with a 593, followed by Maris on 592 and Warren on 591.

The author would like to publicly thank Nick Sullivan, ASIL and Miroslav Sipek for all of their help and assistance. A special thank you to Clive Halnan who both worked tirelessly in the background during selection while the team was away.  

John Johnstone, President of the 300 Metre Association would like to congratulate the team on a magnificent effort and to thank selectors Tony O'Keefe and Clive Halnan for all their input over many years.

Bronze Medal to Australia's David Hollister, Warren Potent and Maris Taylor.
The helicopter landed on the range in Switzerland while shooting was in progress!