Kuwait- Breitling Cup remains wide open after day 9 Final 

(MENAFN - Arab Times) It has already been proved that never has any shooting competition in Kuwait drawn so much interest as the Breitling Shooting Cup, which is currently being held at the Mayadeen Shooting Complex in Subhan.

With 232 persons having taken to the range so far over the last nine days, with a few days still to go, it has already become one of the best - attended shooting competitions ever held at this range and the organizers expect the competitors to at least close in to the 300 mark, although it would not be a surprise if this figure was crossed.
This competition is being organized by two remarkable gunslingers " Colonel Waleed Al Shehab and Emad Al Ansari, who have ensured that the event runs smoothly and continues to draw interest.
The event, which is seeing the participation of various organizations and clubs - including the Filipino Action Shooting Team (FAST) " is being held inside the safe confines of Mayadeen Shooting Complex with the support of Gen Ahmad E. Saleem - the Director of the Range. Al Shehab and Al Ansari are not only the organizers but also the brains behind the whole competition sponsored by Al Nibras.

The final list of winners will be revealed on Saturday, 16th April at 1800 hours and until then they will all have to keep their fingers crossed, especially those who have been named among the top five in each category. Al Shehab and Al Ansari have, meanwhile, made arrangements to ensure that the top 3 winners in each category walk home with a trophy, medal and special gifts. They have also come up with special awards for exceptional individuals who have improved tremendously in their shooting skills.
Meanwhile, partial results of the last 9 days of competition have brought into the spotlight some of the really talented men and women. But with two more days to go in the event, there is a real possibility of some more excellent shooters taking part in the event and walking home with the crowns. Organizers say the competition is very close and so far no one can say who will walk away with the title in each event.

The event is being held for the following categories:
1.Precision:This category is seeing a lot of competitors in action with focus on Beginners (men and women) and police, military and professionals(men and women).

2.Sniper: Taking part in this event are the men only of police and military while the category is also open to both civilian men and women.

3.Tactical: There are no restrictions in this event with the competition open to all men and women.
Meanwhile, the ground rules have been laid out as follows for each category as follows for the convenience of the shooters:

Precision
Beginners (ladies)
l A 9mm pistol is being used from 10 meters
l Each competitor is allowed 5 practice shots
l The competition proper sees each shooter firing 10 shots with a time restriction of 3 minutes
l No telescope or laser is allowed
l The organizers have emphasized that no personal weapon is allowed
Beginners (Men)
l In this competition again a 9mm is used from 10 meters
l Each competitor is being allowed 5 practice shots
l The competition proper sees each shooter firing 10 shots with a time restriction of 2 minutes
l No telescope or laser is allowed
l No personal weapon is allowed
Police, military & professional (ladies)
l This competition also involves a 9mm pistol with the distance increased to 15 meters
l Each competitor is allowed 5 practice shots
l The shooters have to fire 10 shots in 2 minutes
l No telescope or laser is allowed
l This is one of the few categories in which a personal weapon is allowed
Police, military & professional (Men)
l In this category also a 9mm pistol is being used from 15 meters
l 5 shots are allowed to each competitor during the practice round
l In the competition proper 10 shots are fired in 2 minutes
l No telescope or laser is allowed.
l This is another category in which a personal weapon allowed
Sniper competition
Police & Military (Men)
l This competition involves a .22 Hornet fired from 50 meters making the event difficult for all the participants
l A total of 10 shots are to be fired
l The target opens only for 3 seconds before it closes for 4 seconds. The competitor is really being tested in this shoot because each time the target opens the competitor is allowed to shoot only once
l No personal weapon is allowed.
Civilians (Men)
l This shoot again involves a .22 Hornet from 50 meters
l 10 shots are fired in this event
l Target opens only for 3 seconds before it closes for 4 seconds and again each time the target opens the competitor is allowed to shoot only once.
l No personal weapon allowed
Civilians (ladies)
l Even for the ladies this competition has been made tough with a .22 Hornet being used from 50 meters
l The competitors fire 10 shots in this competition
l Here the time has been increased a little as the target opens for 4 seconds and closes for 5 seconds with the competitor shooting only once each time the target opens
l No personal weapon is allowed

Tactical competition
This part of the event will have ended by the time this article is published. While all the other competitions are being held daily, the Tactical event was held over only four days - Tuesdays and Wednesdays-in the two-week event with the last shoot on April 13.
In Tactical Shooting, the first string required the shooters to sit across the first target which the competitors had to engage 3 times with 2 shots to the body and 1 head shot. The magazine was already inserted but the gun was not cocked. The gunslingers were required to remain seated and then engage the 3 targets behind each other, from the left to the right and then in reverse.
The next string required the shooter to stand across the target. They had to be close but they needed to move a little backwards before they could engage the target - twice. They then had to move through a window but they were not allowed to stick the gun inside and had also to make sure that they were covered and not standing in the window before engaging the target twice. While engaging the last target, the competitors were required to open the door slightly to fire at the target and once again they could not expose themselves.
All the targets were considered their "enemy" and needed to be tackled with accuracy and speed, with the scores achieved in both the strings being added for the total score of each shooter. Besides accuracy, time was a major factor in this event for those who took less time to complete the course being declared the winners.

The ideal load for this shoot was 9 and 6 bullets for the two magazines to be used to complete the course. A miss resulted in 5 seconds being added to the time of the competitor while a procedural error equaled 3 seconds, the head and middle target was zero, the outside the middle target 1 second and the shoulder part of the target 3 seconds.
Seventeen shooters had so far had taken part in the Tactical Competition with the top 5 gunslingers including one of the most recognized shooters on the range Omar Ebraheem Al-Ansari along with two gunmen from the Filipino Action Shooting Team (FAST) - Romano Marcelino and Tournament Director Lamberto Bernardo. The others are Ali Abdulaziz and Ali Abdullah Hassan.
Precision Competition
Coming to the shoot proper, with a maximum of 100 points possible in the Precision class, the Beginners -Ladies event saw 22 shooters having taken part in the competition. Asrar Ali Fadel, Hadeer Fakhri Al-Enezi, Bashayer Faisal Al-Robaiaan, Marwah Al-Baloshi and Dalal Khaled Al-Ghanem were the best so far as they were among the top five.

Meanwhile, in the Beginners (Men), 101 gunslingers had participated so far in the event and one of the youngest contenders - Shaheen Waleed Al-Shehab, who has obviously been trained very well by his father Colonel Waleed Al Shehab was among the best 5 accompanied by Hamad Waleed Al-Mansoor, Omar Fahad Al-Oraiman, Moath Al-Asaaf and Eucebio D. Sadig.
In the Police, military and professional section, Athari Mohammad Al-Safi was so far the only one to join the event but the organizers are expecting more shooters to join this category before the curtains are drawn.
Some 27 persons had so far competed in the Police, military and professional section but only a few had made it to the top with the following the best five: Saeed Salem Al-Marri,Ali Abdulaziz, Mohammed Ahmed Al-Sadoon, Abdulaziz Ali and Mohammed Salem Al-Rowaisan.

Sniper competition
Hundred points is the maximum possible score in the Sniper event with 21 contenders so far in the Police & Military Men category and the following in the top 5: Saad Lafi Al-Mutairi, Salem Saleh Al-Mari, Abdulaziz Mohammed Al-Monayee, Omar Ebrahim Al-Ansari and Ali Abdullah Hassan.
On the other hand, the Civilians Men's class proved to one of the best- attended categories with 107 contenders so far and the 5 exceptional shooters being Shehab Waleed A-Shehab, Abdullah Sohail Abdulahameed, Mohammed Al-Jeeran, Shaikh Talal Adel Al-Sabah and Ahmad Saood Al-Naqi.
In the Civilian (Ladies), 18 participants have taken to the range so far with with the following 5 brilliant shooters in leading positions: Asmar Ali Fadel, Dalal Khaled Al Ghanem, Asrar Ali Fadel, Modawi Hamad and Dalal Mohammed Al-Samhan.

Top 5 in each category as of 11th April 2011
Precision competition
l Beginners (Ladies)
1) Asrar Ali Fadel
2) Hadeer Fakhri Al-Enezi
3) Bashayer Faisal Al-Robaiaan
4) Marwah Al-Baloshi
5) Dalal Khaled Al-Ghanem
l Beginners (Men)
1) Shaheen Waleed Al-Shehab
2) Hamad Waleed Al-Mansoor
3) Omar Fahad Al-Oraiman
4) Moath Al-Asaaf
5) Eucebio D. Sadig
l Police, military & professional (ladies)
1) Athari Mohammad Al-Safi
l Police, military & professional (Men)
1) Saeed Salem Al-Marri
2) Ali Abdulaziz
3) Mohammed Ahmed Al-Sadoon
4) Abdulaziz Ali
5) Mohammed Salem Al-Rowaisan
Sniper competition
l Police & Military (Men)
1) Saad Lafi Al-Mutairi
2) Salem Saleh Al-Mari
3) Abdulaziz Mohammed Al-Monayee
4) Omar Ebrahim Al-Ansari
5) Ali Abdullah Hassan
l Civilians (Men)
1) Shehab Waleed Al-Shehab
2) Abdullah Sohail Abdulahameed
3) Mohammed Al-Jeeran
4) Shaikh / Talal Adel AL-Sabah
5) Ahmad Saood Al-Naqi
l Civilians (Ladies)
1) Asmar Ali Fadel
2) Dalal Khaled Al Ghanem
3) Asrar Ali Fadel
4) Modawi Hamad
5) Dalal Mohammed Al-Samhan
Tactical Competition
1) Omar Ebraheem Al-Ansari
2) Romano Marcelino
3) Lamberto Bernardo
4) Ali Abdulaziz
5) Ali Abdullah Hassan

FAST President Manny Cornelio assisted in the competition and took up the role of the Range Officer under the close supervision of Emad Al Ansari.
The organizers are following IDPA rules with a few amendments due to the nature of the range and the competition.
The competition is expected to be tough over the next two days with all the shooters availing the closing stages of the event to prove they are the best so the place to be on Thursday and Friday is the Mayadeen Shooting Complex.

By: Jose Gabriel