Gibraltar Pistol Association (GPA) attended the IPSC European Handgun Championships

The Gibraltar Pistol Association (GPA) attended the IPSC European Handgun Championships 2023, held in Corinth Greece between 18-29 September 2023. The GPA was represented by a team of five athletes at this prestigious event, namely Stephen Borge, Mario Apap, Rachael Viagas, Shane Athey and John Holmes. Competition took place over 5 days with 1522 athletes from 53 countries participating in the various divisions.
According to Stephen the competition was very exciting. He commented that the new format that they employed was fantastic but forced you to be focused and concentrating for two and a half hours at a time with little respite. “It was very exciting, with barely time to reload before you were on the next stage” said Rachael, “it was a new level to what we are used to.” The team performed very well with all of the athletes completing the 24 stages. Unfortunately we did not achieve any top finishes but considering the level of competition our athletes held their own with Stephen our stand out athlete, finishing in 89th position out of the 266 in Open Division.
“IPSC in Gibraltar is growing and with the use of the range at Willis’s magazine the development and growth of the sport is ensured. We intend to have a team competing in the World Championships in 2025, that will be held in South Africa.
“In all this was a great experience for the GPA team, and we were honored to be on this stage representing Gibraltar.”
Mario, the Regional Director for IPSC Gibraltar, also attended the IPSC AGM and reports that there is incredible growth for the sport world wide and that there is a clear focus on youth development. “We are very proud of our youth program” he said, “although we do need to continue to grow and develop the sport for the future!”