Jan/Feb - uspsa

KOENIG CLAIMS WORLD
CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE!
By: Dave Stanford, RD-2
Doug tioen~g 111 1 ne 1 urlnel
USPSA member Doug
Koenig A-5408 is the new
World I.P.S.C. Practical Shooting
Champion! Deborah
James A-1685 retained her
Ladies World Champion title.
U.S. Gold Team member Koenig
came from behind to top the 301
shooters at World Shoot IX.
The shoot, held in Adelaide
South Australia was one of the
best world shoots other than
those held in the U.S.(I'm
prejudiced.) Courses were very
straightforward, quite varied,
with small, but significant
departures from the U.S. format.
The World Shoot is a team
event, and not unexpectedly the
U.S. Men's and Women's Gold
Teams were first place winners.
Also the U.S. Men's "un-official"
Silver team was second in
points. Each country can only
field one official men's team and
one official ladies' team. The
official Men's National Team
results are: U.S.
first, Australia second,
Philippines
third. The Ladies'
team results were
U.S. first, Australia
second. Once again
the U.S. leads the
world in Practical
Competition.
U.S. Gold Team
members are: Rob
Leatham, Jerry
Barnhart, Doug
Koenig, J. Michael
Plaxco, Brian
Enos and Mark
Mazotta. Ladies
Team members are: Deborah
James, Kippi Boykin, Shirley
Hamilton, and Sharon
Kimbrell.
Suzy Ballantyne of Australia
was high Junior shooter, and
John Sayle of the U.S. was the
high veteran (senior).
Congratulations all!
A few of the courses are
included in order to give you an
idea of the flavor of the match.
Stage 1 was a field course
sponsored by Springfield
Armory. It required the shooter
to shoot through various windows
and doors as he moved
along a wall.
Stage 2, also sponsored by
Springfield, was entitled
SADAT. It had four pepper
poppers set at 35 yards which
you shot at through a window.
This was a Virginia Count
exercise. If you missed a pepper
popper you then had to
have two hits on a paper target
set at 15 yards.
Stage 3, Guard Duty, sponsored
by Colt USA and Frontier
Arms, was a house clearing
exercise that most shooters
enjoyed. You started seated and
on the signal engaged a target
at a window, at a doorway, ran
through a room to a back door
all the while engaging targets.
Stage 9, Alley Drive, sponsored
by Smith & Wesson &
Grycol Int'l., was a vehicle stage
in which the competitor was
seated in a car. On the signal
he drew and engaged 6 pepper
poppers. Some of the poppers
were concealed or protected
behind hard cover or no shoots.
Stage 12, also sponsored by
Smith & Wesson & Grycol Int'l.,
was a speed shoot where the
shooter again started in a chair
and on the start signal engaged
3 paper targets and two pepper
poppers. He was supposed to
avoid two no shoot targets in
the process.
Stages 19-22 "Hotel Room,"
sponsored by Caspian Arms,
were quick little speed shoots
where the shooter was seated at
a desk, jumped up and ran to a
doorway, and engaged the
targets inside a small room.
One of the Hotel room stages
was dropped from the event for
safety problems. A shooter was
hit by a ricochet from a plate
set too close to the firing line.
In fact, many of the metal
plates were set quite close to
the shooters, and splatter was
a serious problem. Several
shooters, RO's, and even J.P.
Denis said they now better
understood why the U.S.
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