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Team NFA
Update
By Grayson Penney
Rob “Fang” Engh
Our last TEAM NFA update for Rob
brought us to the end of World Shoot
competition. After the match Rob and
his teammates took a few days to tour
around the historic city of Rhodes, hit the
local beaches and tour a number of the
local ancient ruins. In Rob’s own words,
“Getting to walk around buildings that
have been in place for a few thousand
years is humbling when you consider how
old Canada as a nation is.”
With their post-World Shoot mini-R&R
concluded, the gang headed to Athens to
catch their plane for the next stop on their
European competition tour. Unfortunately,
like so many other travelers last fall,
the country-wide strikes and walkouts
finally caught up to Rob’s group as they
attempted to fly out of Athens on the last
day; with their plane being delayed
numerous times.
After all the delays, finally landing in
Czech was like coming home to Rob.
He had previously competed in a match
there in 2010, and was eagerly looking
forward to the small Level
III scheduled for the town of Hodonice,
about 1.5 hours from Prague. If you
remember from last issue, Rob had
injured his knee, and it was still very
sore. However, he wasn’t about to
miss out on the chance to compete
in one of his favourite venues, and
somehow was able to make a much
better showing, placing 5th overall in
Production Division, with Miroslav
Zapletal winning the match overall.
(Incidentally, Miroslav also won at
the Canadian Nationals last year, and
finished 10th in Greece at the Worlds.)
According to Rob, the Czech shoot was
much better organized and the stages
were also of a much higher caliber than
those offered by the Worlds, including
numerous options for the shooter, well
thought out and built courses, as well
as properly working props. Rob even
managed a stage win after Miroslav
encouraged him to go for broke and
engage a turning target after hitting
the activator that moved it, instead of
the typical “Production safe” way of
shooting the turner, then the activator.
Chuckling, Rob later mused that
Miroslav is probably still kicking
himself for the encouragement, as he
would almost have been guaranteed
to have won the stage had Rob not
followed his advice and shot it his way.
22 March - April www.nfa.ca