Gold Medal For Austrlia

[philw]

Well Done to all the Aussies

great to see some meddles going home after all the effort getting over there

[jimbo]

G'day Folks,

Finally back on Aussie soil, and it sure is good to be home.

Thanks to all for the kind words. Just a few thoughts........

The WBC has been going since 1991 and is held every two years. Since the first event in France, the USA have dominated the game. They have a lot of very good shooters, and the results usually reflect this.

However, a team of champions does not always make a champion team.

Our A Team put a lot of effort into teamwork. We were the only team to have a backup rifle on the bench next to our competing shooter (yes, that is permitted). It paid off twice during the match. We had a team member on a spotting scope watching every shot (and the wind indicators) to help diagnose any lost shots. We checked each others gear to make sure that nothing was left to chance. Because of the strange (as in 'unfamiliar') powder that was available, we helped each other tune the rifles to perfection before the event...not an easy task. We shared solvents, bore pastes (very necessary, as it turned out), cleaning rods and other things. We had a Hawkeye borescope to check the barrels before each match.

As it turned out, Stuart Elliott's rifle just quit on the first group of the match, and I immediately indicated that he double up on mine for the rest of the tournament. As he was following me in the shooting order, this was no great problem. We had to work hard to keep on top of the fouling though, and every shooter in our whole 12 had copper fouling problems - possibly the low humidity caused this, even with moly coated bullets.

With one yardage to go (the 200 yard HV), we were trailing the USA A team, and had the task of picking up 30percent on each target - some said we were dreaming!!!

The task was simply to beat the USA shooter on our left on each target. After two targets we were nudging the lead, and after three targets we began to pull away. One of the USA A team copped a penalty for only firing four shots, but even with that we still beat them fair and square.

With victory secured there was elation, laughter, and yes, there were tears. The enormous release of 20 years of trying to break the stranglehold was an unusual feeling of joy. I guess it did not really sink in for a day or so.

With thanks and the greatest respect for my teammates - Paul Sullivan, Craig Whittleton and Stuart Elliott.

This is one of the times when it is just great to be an Australian.

[trevort]

we're proud of you and all the team, well done. Very well done

[stinkitup]

Thanks for popping in and giving us a heads up, brillant work to all!

[macca]

Excellent effort from the whole team.The typical aussie helping your mates out and a bloody lot of hard work.You are all true champions.

cheers,
Macca