STERKFONTEIN SHOOTING ACADEMY – Tony Blignaut
Each year Compak SA host their panicle National event, The Presidents Cup, where each province fields a team of their best sporting shooters.
In 2017 this event ran concurrently with the 1 st leg of the Beretta Cup, other legs of the Beretta Cup would follow, sometimes at international events later in the year.
I am registered to represent The Eastern Cape when I shoot Compak events, and in this particular year we had a really talented bunch of shooters in the Eastern Cape, which included
several juniors, so while I had qualified to shoot in the Eastern Cape side, I stepped aside to allow the youngsters to shoot the Presidents Cup as members of the Eastern Province Team, I also went but as the team manager, and shot as an individual.
2017 was the year I turned 66 and the year you turn 66 your category changes from Senior to Veteran. As you get older your reflexes, hand and eye coordination and even your sight start to diminish and it is difficult to compete against the younger shooters, so the category’s come into play to level the playing field.
Free State Province won the Presidents Cup convincingly, with a star-studded line of shooters all of whom has shot for the National team before.
As an individual shooter, I managed to win the Veterans and also picked up a gold medal in the Beretta Cup making my first National event as a Veteran a memorable one.
