PISTOL SHOOTING
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ORANGE’S Dave Oates and Dean Brus are confident they can form a winning combination at the 2010 World WA 1500 Championships.
The duo are fresh from the 2009 championships in Germany where they finished second in the World Team Match Pistol event behind Germany.
The Pistol Australia pairing shot 1169 to finish 16 points behind Germany on 1185.
They were also awarded gold medals for winning the Two-man Team Pistol 1500 in the high master division.
The Orange District Pistol Club members are already talking about doing their best to earn selection in the national team so they can compete at the 2010 championships and try and improve their results.
“Now we’ve got that one under the belt, we’ve charged the glasses and made a pact that we’ll try very hard to be there again and learn from our experiences this time,” Brus said.
Oates added: “They’re good but they’re not unbeatable. I reckon, now we’re a bit smarter, we could go back there and probably win it (the team title). It’s a tough ask but it’s not out of reach.”
Oates and Brus were the only Australian team members, meaning they shot in the pistol and revolver events, while other countries had different team members for different events.
Oates and Brus were the only Australian team members, meaning they shot in the pistol and revolver events, while other countries had different team members for different events.
This didn’t deter the Aussie pair and they were competitive throughout their other events in the championships.
In the Two-man Team Revolver 1500 they came third in the high master and were fifth in the World Team Match revolver.
Little separated the pair in the individual events.
In the Pistol 1500 Oates was seventh on 1469 and Brus was one point behind in eighth.
Brus was fifth in the Distinguished Revolver with 584 and Oates came in ninth on 573.
Brus claimed fifth also in the Open Match on 594 with Oates 18th on 584.
In the Revolver 1500 Brus finished eighth on 1483 and Oates was 12th on 1477.
The Service Revolver and Distinguished Pistol matches was where they made things interesting.
Oates borrowed Brus’ gun for the Service Revolver and beat him by one place and two points to finish 12th.
In the Distinguished Pistol Brus got one back when he borrowed Oates’ gun and finished one place and three points ahead in eighth.
Brus believes their consistency is what helped them bring home trophies in the team and two-man events.
“I think that is what’s contributed to a team result, is that we’re very close, we’re very evenly matched,” Brus explained.
“We shot below where we can shoot individually but, with that heavy Australian shirt and that world team environment, we managed to hold a reasonable consistency and that got us the result.”
The 2010 World Championships will be in Sweden but before then Oates and Brus will be doing their best to earn selection in the Australian team again.
This means they will test themselves at a number of state championships as well as the nationals.
Before then they will be aiming for top results at the NSW Service Pistol and Service Pistol Unrestricted Championships at the Orange District Pistol Club this weekend.