Cartridge and bullet

In Zagreb, the shooting world championship starts.

49th Rifle Championship - a unique event. It unites the masters of two types of shooting - bullet and stand. In no other competition do these related disciplines overlap anymore.

But they are combined with the Olympic periodicity. According to the charter of the international federation, the world championships in bullet shooting are held once every four years, while the stand compete every year.

Naturally, most of the two-week competitions will be given to the masters of bullet shooting. The program of world championships for shooters in the dash is much more extensive than for their colleagues. It includes 24 exercises (male and female), 10 of them are Olympic.

Adults and young masters will have to play 43 sets of awards. This is only in personal competitions, and the team competition will be conducted in parallel.

Standers are much easier. After the Olympics in Athens, a female double-ladder was excluded from 6 Olympic species. Nevertheless, competitions at the World Cup in this type of program are still being held, although they have ceased to be as numerous as before.

Despite the Olympic cyclicality, world championships are much less pompous. But given that up to now no major shooting competitions have been held in Zagreb, the Croats will have to pass a serious hospitality test. A week before the start of the championship, the organizing committee received applications from 3 thousand participants from 107 world federations. With so many guests, the beginning shooting world championship has already been announced as the largest event that has ever taken place in Croatia. And add here the tourists and official guests who will come to the General Assembly of the International Shooting Federation (IFSS) ... The main one, of course, will be the President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge. Some observers claim that he is not entirely satisfied with the conservatism of this sport and intends to bring his opinion to the new IFSS leadership, which will be elected in Zagreb.

And for two shooting ranges - “Vrapsansky stream” and “Puddle” - this is a test. They were lifted literally from the ruins. But now they are equipped with the latest equipment. Their inspection was carried out by Croatian President Stepan Mezic, accompanied by the mayor of Zagreb, Milan Bandic. The latter made an unexpected gift for all accredited participants by opening a public swimming pool for them for free. True, the Russian participants are unlikely to be able to spend time there. Firstly, they settled the bullet shooting team away from the main place of residence of the teams.

For several weeks, the organizers have offered to book the reserved rooms at the hotel for a modest house called Tsvetno Nelyosel, reminiscent of a student dormitory. And secondly, the Russians will arrive and leave in groups, in several rounds.

For athletes with weapons, the Croatian government has adopted the most favored nation treatment.

Approximately 3,500 sporting rifles and pistols will be exempted from tax on the import of firearms into the country, and customs formalities have been simplified for them. This is a common practice in countries hosting such big competitions.

It was not easy to get into the Russian national team for the World Cup. Competition in some disciplines was very high. Nevertheless, the trainers managed to make a choice in favor of 19 masters of bullet shooting and 15 - stand. By the decision of the coaching council, the Olympic champions veteran Boris Kokorev and Olga Kuznetsova will miss the championship. The winner of the European Championship Kira Mozgalova and Irina Gerasimenyuk also dropped out.

Perhaps our team will be one of the most titled and united at this championship. For the first time, the last gathering of both the standmen and the bullets took place together. In the complex "Fox hole" all the conditions were created for training and relaxation of both teams.

The expectations of the head coach for bullet shooting Oleg Lapkin are associated primarily with the Olympic disciplines. In them, Russians will try to compete for 6 awards: three gold, one silver and two bronze. Four years ago, Russian masters also brought 6 medals from Finland: two gold, one silver and three bronze and became the second in the team event. How will it be this time?

For Russian standers this world championship is also important. A year ago, in the Italian Lonato, Sergei Planovsky, who made his debut as a mentor, did not fulfill his promise to receive the two highest awards, although the team looked decent with the “silver” of Irina Laricheva and the “gold” in the team event in the women's ladder. Despite the triumphal march of the national team through the stages of the World Cup, Planovsky is now cautious, tentatively hoping to receive only one medal of each dignity. So be it. It’s fitting to keep promises, because otherwise our guys simply will not be understood.

Men: ladder - Alexey Alipov, Pavel Gurkin, Maxim Kosarev; double-trap - Vitaly Fokeev, Vasily Mosin, Boris Morozov; Skit - Sergey Aksyutin, Oleg Tishin, Valery Shomin.

Women: ladder - Irina Laricheva, Tatyana Barsuk, Irina Tkach; Skit - Erdzhanik Avetisyan, Svetlana Demina, Olga Panarina.

Men: pneumatic and small-caliber pistol - Mikhail Nestruev, Vladimir Goncharov, Vladimir Isakov; small-caliber rifle - Artem Hadzhibekov, Sergey Kovalenko, Vyacheslav Bochkarev; air rifle - Konstantin Prikhodchenko, Denis Sokolov, Sergey Kruglov; standard pistol - Sergey Aliferenko, Sergey Polyakov, Alexey Klimov.

Women: pneumatic and small-caliber pistol - Natalya Paderina, Galina Belyaeva, Svetlana Smirnova; small-caliber rifle - Lyubov Galkina, Tatyana Goldobina, Alena Nizkoshapskaya; air rifle - Lyubov Galkina, Tatyana Goldobina, Marina Bobkova.