100 clubs set for Kenya Open event

Inspector Mwala aka Davis Mwabili (left) is shown how to fire a Kenyan made - Chalbi Rifle by Lindah Oloo a range personnel at Shaba Shooting Range, Samburu county, June 10, 2022. A two-day International level-3 handgun Championship will be held at the range on June 18-19. [Mose Sammy, Standard]

Over 100 shooting clubs from across Africa have confirmed their participation in the upcoming Kenya Open Level-3 Handgun Championship to be held in Kamanga, Samburu County this week.

So far, 207 entries have been received including 40 ladies out of the possible 300 for the International Level-3 Shooting Championship match to be hosted by Chalbi Shooting Club at Shaba Shooting Range, June 17-20 with registration ongoing.

Shaba Sports Shooting Range is a 22-bay facility with a challengingly superb layout that is expected to test the tactical ability of the contestants as well as their speed, as new records are expected to be set during the Open.

 It is currently ranked as the best in East and Central Africa with a capability of hosting Level-4 championships.

 In addition to African teams; other contestants from are from Spain, China, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Ghana, South Africa, Egypt and Sweden among others.

World sports shooting championship includes, IPSC, IDPA, steel challenge, small bore, full bore, short gun QND air weapons, which attracts over a 1000 entries during the weeklong shooting competitions.

With host Kenya having the largest contingent of 70 shooters led by top marksmen, Ibrahim Ndungu, Robert Nyamongo, Thomas Kiilu, Sammy Onyango, Memba Muriuki, Issa Issa and Linda Oloo among others.

Chalbi Shooting Club will host the two day meet at Shaba Sports Shooting Range under the Kenya Sports Shooting Federation (KSSF) in conjunction with IPSC.

 International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) was established to promote, maintain, improve and advance the sport of practical shooting, to safeguard its principles and to regulate its conduct worldwide for the safe, recreational use of firearms by persons of good character.

Orientation for the tournament will be done on June 16-17 and will have a mix of professional shooters and fun lovers as it will be open to the public in efforts to introduce the sport to the public.

"The teams are currently in high gear training as they expect to win the championship. It is prestigious to win in such a match but to do they they must be super-fast and precise to conquer our layout!" cautions Col (Rtd) Joseph Kamary, Manager, Shaba Shooting Range Leading the dignitaries to the championship will be Sports CS Amina Mohammed accompanied Vitaly Kryuchin, IPSC President.

Hosney Hasem, President of Africa Shooting Federation will be accompanied by executive members of the Egyptian Shooting Federation who will be benchmarking with the intention of starting, IPSC in Egypt.

Master shooter, Ibrahim Ndungu is currently in camp at the Coast with focus on endurance, mental strength as he seeks to better his speed too. “I’ve chosen Mombasa for my training since the heat conditions here are similar to that in Kamanga.

 It gets quite hot up there between 9am – 4pm but worse at around 11am.

If you don’t have the correct mind set at that time, you are likely to suffer a mental melt down!” said Ndungu, also a member of the Team-Kenya at the Championship Ndungu is using this maiden tournament to gauge himself and find a balance between his speed (strength) and accuracy (shortfall) before heading out for Italy on June 24 for a Level-3 championship.