Zim shootist finishes third gatehouse-golf-club

Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter

ZIMBABWEAN shootist Nicholas Macdonald finished third overall out of 106 participants in two target shooting competitions held at Elephant Hills Golf Course that ended at the weekend.

The 2020 FITASC Africa Sporting Championships, categorised into two distinct competitions, African Sporting Championship and Compak Sporting Championship, was held over six days featuring participants from 17 countries in the men’s and women’s juniors, seniors, veterans and masters categories.

Biodegradable plastic targets are electronically fired from different directions, either into the air or horizontally along the ground and the shooter has to hit them with a 12-bore gun to earn a point.

Macdonald from Harare scored an overall 192 points, one behind 27-time world champion Digweed from United Kingdom, who was relegated to second place by Hungarian Andras Szerdahelyi, who scored 196 points.

Macdonald, a former golfer felt motivated competing against world champions.

“ThiseventhasdonealotforZimbabweasa country. We usually have one or two shooting competitions in the country while others have more, meaning we need more to be able to compete for world championships,” said Macdonald.

The event was making a return to Zimbabwe after a 20-year hiatus and came at a time the country has adopted sports tourism as part of its re-engagement drive to lure more international arrivals.

Chief Director in the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Benson Martins Dube expressed the government’s commitment to promoting sports tourism.

“We are happy that we managed to host the tournament after a 20-year break. That alone shows how safe Zimbabwe is as a destination and as a ministry we are supportive of development through sports tourism. We want to thank President Mnangagwa who allowed this event to run parallel with the sixth session of the Africa Forum Regional Summit on Sustainable Development, which ended on Thursday,” Dube said.

Bryan Durrad from the Clay Target Shooting Association of Zimbabwe said it took two years to convince FITASC to return the sport to Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe Shooting Sport Federation and Clay Target Shooting Association of Zimbabwe organised the event in collaboration with the Sports and Recreation Commission. — @ ncubeleon

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