George Digweed won the European FITASC Championship at Konopiste, the famous hunting  Estate near Prague over the weekend (23rd-26th May) to take his tally of  European FITASC titles up to an amazing 13.

George  shot 49/50 on the first day and 48/50 on the second day, to leave him with a  tally of 97/100. He added a 47/50 on the third day to leave him in joint first  place, tied with Frenchman Bastien Havart on 144, with two shooters,  Englishman Andy White and Spanish shooter Juan Valero on 143.  This  set up an intriguing final day, and with deteriorating weather conditions,  anybody ‘north’ of 140 had a realistic chance of victory.

Both  Digweed and Havart started fairly early on the last day, and both started with  22/25, effectively opening the door for the following pack, but in the second  round, a 21/25 from Havart saw him finish on 187, and a good 25 straight from  Digweed saw him finish on 191/200.  A total which he said “I would not want  to go and shoot again”.

France’s  Charles Bardou shot a 24/25 on his first round of the last day, which meant he  needed 25/25 to beat Digweed, 24/25 to tie.  He shot a 21/25 though to  leave him on 188/200 for the silver medal.

Andy  White and Valero were both on later rotations, and with the weather  deteriorating further, and the knowledge that they need to shoot 49/50 to win,  they both slipped up slightly from their daily average to finish 186/200, just  out of the medals.

Bronze  medal was won by Havart on 187/200, and there was a good show for British  Shooters for a change on the rostrum, with Cheryl Hall winning the Ladies, Jack  Lovick winning the Juniors, Dave Asher winning the Super Veterans and Steve  Brightwell just missing out to Conny Petters from Sweden in the Veterans  class.

Speaking  after the event, George was delighted with his win and said “It is always nice  to defend any Championship, let alone the European Championship, and to do it  against a field of 950 shooters is very special for me.  I thought the  targets and the organisation were second to none, with every angle, speed and  distance being shown to competitors with the targets, and the attention to  detail from the organisational side was without question first class.

“The  World Championships here in 2007 were marred with the “concrete” clay saga, and  this shoot has extinguished all of those memories and put Konopiste and  Miroslav’s organisational skills back on a World footing.  The layouts ran  ahead of time, it rained nearly every day, and yet there were no transport or  mud problems.  Everywhere was clearly defined and marked and the standard  of catering for a ‘green field’ site took some believing”

“This  in itself created a tremendous atmosphere, and all concerned should be proud of  what they achieved”

“I  now look forward to the defence of my European Compak title in Italy during  June, and closer to home, the Clay Shooting Classic and British Compak Grand  Prix at the beginning of next month”

Congratulations from everyone at ShootClay, we will be along to the Compak Grand Prix in a couple of weeks to take in the British Grand Prix, and watch George shooting this excellent looking event.