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On 24. - 25. In July, the HFT 2021 World Championship was reached in Skýcov, Slovakia, in beautiful hilly terrain below the Low Tatras. The World Championship races are always designed as two days to perfectly verify the tactical, shooting and mental readiness of the competitors. And it was no different this year either.
After safety instructions and the necessary administrative instructions, the shooters set out on a competition track with forty perfectly prepared shooting positions every day to compete in the top international event of the year.
The main architect of the competition tracks was Marcel Žipaj and he compiled them so that their composition and difficulty corresponded to those that are not the World Championships.
On the first day, the track was conceived in mostly forest terrain. The builders make very good use of the hilly terrain and in many locations forced the competition to shoot at an angle or from unstable positions. In several cases, they also used optical illusions, so it was difficult for competitors to estimate the direct distances of the target.
The second day of the competition was a combined track, where forest passages alternated between shooting in open terrain and it was not at all easy to estimate the distance of targets, direction and wind force. The track was challenging in itself, but when the wind added, reaching in some cases a speed of 6m / s, the track the next day became a perfect trick.
The two-day struggle was challenging and many reached the bottom of their physical and mental strength. The competitors were on the track for more than 4 hours every day, which means four hours of maximum concentration, fighting with their own head and weather conditions. Those who have not experienced will have a hard time to understand who experienced; they know what I am writing about.
HFT is a shooting discipline known for the fact that it is not possible to make a correction on a riflescope or a weapon during a race. Thanks to this, shooting at distances from 7 to 41 m is usually complicated. The shooter must evaluate influences such as wind, distance or shooting at an angle before firing. And all this without the use of any aids such as anemometers or rangefinders. If you do everything correctly, it will hit the target and the lever mechanism will lower the hit target. If he misses, the target remains standing and the competitor loses a valuable points.
The course and regularity of the competitions are supervised by the judges and at the same time each competitor must shoot through the ballistic chronograph Air Chrony during each competition day, where the speed of the projectile and the power of the weapons are controlled to exceed the set limit of 16J. Air Chrony ballistic chronographs are used at top national and international competitions all over the world and it is also interesting that it is original Czech manufacturer.
The Air Chrony ballistic chronograph has been the official measuring instrument of prestigious international competitions around the world since 2016. Photo: Juraj Valkovič
And how did it all turn out?
The Czech national team consisting of Marta Ruzickova, Dusan Mandat, Vladimir Kvapil, Miroslav Trudic, Ladislav Pusztai and Jakub Vicher finished in a great second place, when in the final point total it was not enough only for the Hungarian team.
From left: Jakub Vicher, Ladislav Pusztai, Marta Růžičková, Dušan Mandát, Miroslav Trudič, Vladimír Kvapil
Dusan Mandat was the best of the Czech national team in the OPEN category, after a successful performance on the first day (2nd place overall) he finally experienced the taste of the potato medal and finished in a very good fourth place behind Dariusz Kida (Poland), world champion from 2019 .
Dusan Mandat attacked the top positions after the first day, but in the end he had to settle for 4th place. Photo: Juraj Valkovič
Our representants in the SENIOR category led brilliantly, occupying all medal positions. From left: Jiri Fousek, Miroslav Trudic, Jiri Kremlacek
Eliska Vavrova won the beautiful 2nd place among JUNIORS.
Josef Benes scored 3rd place in the SPRINGER category and Marta Ruzickova, the vice-champion of the world from 2019, won a great 3rd place in the LADIES category.
From left: Simona Hulacova, Katalin Nagy, Marta Ruzickova
Respect also belongs to the organizers, because it was a professionally run race, where each of the organizers had his place and knew what to do. Its preparation certainly took lots of time and the result was definitely worth it. "Glory to the winners, honor to the losers" is a well-known slogan, which is doubly valid when participating in the World Championships.