The 36th UIT World Shooting Championships was the contemporary name of the ISSF World Shooting Championships in all ISSF shooting events that were held in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1954. [1] It was the first time Venezuela hosted the competition (which it did again in 1982), and a new military shooting range had been constructed in the suburbs of Caracas for the event. [2]
The ISSF World Shooting Championships are governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation. World Shooting Championships began in 1897, after the successful 1896 Summer Olympics, and although the ISSF was not founded until 1907, these early competitions are still seen by the organization as the beginning of a continuous row of championships. By this logic, the 2006 competition in Zagreb was called the 49th ISSF World Shooting Championships. These championships, including all ISSF shooting events, are held every four years since 1954. For the shotgun events only, there is an additional World Championship competition in odd-numbered years. These extra competitions are not numbered. In running target, there will be World Championships in Olympic years.
The International Shooting Sport Federation recognizes several shooting events, some of which have Olympic status. They are divided into four disciplines: rifle, pistol, shotgun and running target.
Caracas, officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and centre of the Greater Caracas Area. Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range. Terrain suitable for building lies between 760 and 1,140 m above sea level, although there is some settlement above this range. The valley is close to the Caribbean Sea, separated from the coast by a steep 2,200-metre-high (7,200 ft) mountain range, Cerro El Ávila; to the south there are more hills and mountains. The Metropolitan Region of Caracas has an estimated population of 2.923.201.
After their successful debut in the 1952 Summer Olympics, the Soviet Union now participated for the first time in the World Championships, and won 20 of the 30 gold medals. [1] Rifle shooter Anatoli Bogdanov, the star of the 1952 shooting competitions in Helsinki, dominated once again with six individual and four team victories. He broke the world record in the 300 metre rifle three positions match with a margin of nine points. [3] In the shotgun events, the United States and Italy were still on top, but the shooting greatness of especially Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries had now diminished, shifting the tide eastward.
With the competitions in shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, the Olympic shooting program began its expansion. Three new events were added: 100 metre running deer, 50 metre rifle three positions and trap. In total there were seven events held between 25 and 29 July 1952. No women participated in the 1952 shooting events. This was the first year that a new format was introduced as well: the sites on the guns were now located on the left side of the barrel.
As in most other events, the Soviet team won the team championship in 25 metre center-fire pistol. The American marksman Arthur Jackson commented that the western shooters watched with a mixed sense of pity and relief as the Soviet team shot their archaic Nagant M1895 revolvers in the pre-event training. On the match day they revealed their practical joke and instead brought brand new American Smith & Wesson match revolvers, shooting the same kind of gun and ammunition as the individual champion, and winning three points ahead of the American team. [4]
The Nagant M1895 Revolver is a seven-shot, gas-seal revolver designed and produced by Belgian industrialist Léon Nagant for the Russian Empire.
Smith & Wesson (S&W) is an American manufacturer of firearms, ammunition and restraints. The corporate headquarters are in Springfield, Massachusetts. Smith & Wesson was founded in 1852 and after various corporate changes is now a unit of American Outdoor Brands Corporation.
Rank | Country | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | 20 | 6 | 7 | 33 |
2 | ![]() | 4 | 9 | 5 | 18 |
3 | ![]() | 3 | 6 | 2 | 11 |
4 | ![]() | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
5 | ![]() | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
6 | ![]() | 0 | 4 | 5 | 9 |
7 | ![]() | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
8 | ![]() | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
9 | ![]() | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 |
10 | ![]() | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
![]() | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
![]() | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Individual | Team | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
50 metre pistol | |||||
![]() | ![]() | 553 | ![]() | ![]() | 2722 |
![]() | ![]() | 552 | ![]() | ![]() | 2706 |
![]() | ![]() | 552 | ![]() | ![]() | 2697 |
25 metre rapid fire pistol | |||||
![]() | ![]() | 584 | ![]() | ![]() | 2317 |
![]() | ![]() | 582 | ![]() | ![]() | 2292 |
![]() | ![]() | 581 | ![]() | ![]() | 2289 |
25 metre center-fire pistol | |||||
![]() | ![]() | 586 | ![]() | ![]() | 2319 |
![]() | ![]() | 585 | ![]() | ![]() | 2316 |
![]() | ![]() | 584 | ![]() | ![]() | 2263 |
Individual | Team | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Trap | |||||
![]() | ![]() | 296 | ![]() | ![]() | 773 |
![]() | ![]() | 293 | ![]() | ![]() | 768 |
![]() | ![]() | 293 | ![]() | ![]() | 768 |
Skeet | |||||
![]() | ![]() | 148 | No team competition | ||
![]() | ![]() | 145 | |||
![]() | ![]() | 145 |
Individual | Team | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
100 metre running deer, double shot | |||||
![]() | ![]() | 213 | ![]() | ![]() | 828 |
![]() | ![]() | 206 | ![]() | ![]() | 804 |
![]() | ![]() | 206 | ![]() | ![]() | 757 |
100 metre running deer, single shot | |||||
![]() | ![]() | 224 | ![]() | ![]() | 857 |
![]() | ![]() | 221 | ![]() | ![]() | 824 |
![]() | ![]() | 219 | ![]() | ![]() | 824 |
Shooting sports is a collective group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using various types of ranged weapons, mainly referring to man-portable guns and bows/crossbows.
25 metre rapid fire pistol is one of the ISSF shooting events and is shot with .22 LR pistols. The event has been a part of the Olympic program ever since the beginning in 1896, although its rules changed greatly before World War II, after which they were only slightly changed until the two major revisions of 1989 and 2005. The latter restricted the event to sport pistols, thereby banning .22 Short cartridges as well as encircling grips and low trigger-pull weight. This caused a decline in results, as evidenced by a comparison of the world records under the pre-2005 rules (597) and post-2005 rules (593).
The 50 meter pistol, formerly and unofficially still often called free pistol, is one of the ISSF shooting events. It provides the purest precision shooting among the pistol events, and is one of the oldest shooting types, dating back to the 19th century and only having seen marginal rule changes since 1936. Most of the changes concern distance, caliber, type of pistol, and time allowed and, most recently, format of the finals. The target of this event has never changed since 1900, and the distance since 1912. Competitors have been using the small-bore, rim-fire cartridge since 1908. The sport traced back to the beginning of indoor Flobert pistol parlor shooting in Europe during the 1870s, which in turn traced back to 18th century pistol dueling.
10 meter air rifle is an International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) shooting event, shot over a distance of 10 metres from a standing position with a 4.5 mm (0.177 in) calibre air rifle with a maximum weight of 5.5 kg (12.13 lb). The use of specialized clothing is allowed to improve the stability of the shooting position and prevent chronic back injury which can be caused by the asymmetric offset load on the spine when the rifle is held in position. It is one of the ISSF-governed shooting events included in the Olympic games.
The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) is the governing body of the Olympic Shooting events in rifle, pistol and shotgun disciplines, and of several non-Olympic Shooting sport events. ISSF's activities include regulation of the sport, Olympic qualifications and organization of international competitions such as the ISSF World Cup Series, the ISSF World Cup Finals, the ISSF Separate World Championship in Shotgun events and the ISSF World Championship in all events.
Jason Parker is an American sport shooter, one of the world's leading 10 m Air Rifle shooters, although he has also had some successes in Three positions competitions. He has never won an Olympic medal, but he won the Air Rifle event at the 2002 ISSF World Shooting Championships. He has also held the final world record in this event on several occasions. He lost it to Zhu Qinan of China at the 2004 Olympics, but at an ISSF World Cup competition the following spring he equalled Zhu's 702.7 points, and they shared the world record until October 2006.
Sanjeev Rajput is an Arjuna Awardee Indian shooter from Yamuna Nagar, Haryana.
Konrad Stäheli was a Swiss sports shooter who competed in the late 19th century and early 20th century and participated in the 1900 Summer Olympics and the 1906 Intercalated Games.
100 meter running deer is a discontinued ISSF shooting event, that was part of the Olympic program from 1908 to 1924, in 1952 and 1956, and of the ISSF World Shooting Championships program from 1929 to 1962, when it was replaced by 50 meter running target. Being the original running target event, it was shot with centerfire rifles from a distance of 100 meters, with the target moving sideways across a 20 meter wide opening. There were two versions: single shot and double shot. Occasionally combined competitions, with half the course fired single-shot and half double-shot, were held instead of or in addition to the others. The Nordic Shooting Region continued to hold championships in the discipline until 2004.
50 metre rifle prone is an International Shooting Sport Federation event consisting of 60 shots from the prone position with a .22 Long Rifle (5.6 mm) caliber rifle. The time limit is 75 minutes for the entire match, including sighting shots, or 90 minutes if there is a need to compensate for slow scoring systems. In the 2013 ISSF rules the 60-shot prone match consists of 15-minute preparation and sighting time, followed by the match - 60 shots in 50 minutes for electronic scoring, and 60 shots in 60 minutes for paper targets.
Kateřina Emmons, née Kůrková is a Czech sport shooter who won three Olympic medals. She competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics, where she won a bronze medal, and the 2008 Summer Olympics, where she won her first gold medal in the women's 10 metre air rifle competition, as well as a silver medal in the 50 metre rifle three positions event.
Artur Surenovych Ayvazyan is an Olympic shooter for Ukraine and Russia who won a gold medal in the 50 metre rifle prone event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Sergeant Major Huelet Leo "Joe" Benner was an American multi-discipline pistol shooter during what many consider the golden era of international and national competition. He was a member of three U.S. Olympic teams.
Kurt Ivar Björn Johansson was a Swedish shooter who competed at the 1948, 1960 and 1968 Olympics. In 1948 in London he placed fourth in the free rifle, three positions, 300 m event. In 1960 he finished 19th in the same event and 15th in the 50 m rifle prone competition. In 1968 he placed 17th, 20th and 26th in the mixed free rifle, three positions, 300 m, mixed small-bore rifle, three positions, 50 m, and mixed small-bore rifle, prone, 50 m, respectively.
Lev Matveyevich Vainshtein was a Soviet world champion and Olympic bronze medalist in shooting.
Sergey Rikhter is an Israeli Olympic sport shooter.
Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Charles Jackson was an American competitive sport shooter. In his international career, he captured numerous medals across three Summer Olympic Games, three ISSF World Shooting Championships, and two editions of the Pan American Games. He began shooting in the seventh grade and joined the rifle team at Brooklyn Technical High School in 1934. He competed in local and regional tournaments prior to World War II, during which he worked at the Sperry Corporation and later served as a bombardier in the Pacific Theater of Operations. His first international tournament was the 1948 Summer Olympics and his last was the 1956 edition, at which point he began a career in public service with the Central Intelligence Agency in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He stopped competing at the international level in 1957 and retired from the CIA at the end of 1974. After several years as an instructor and coach, he continued participating in smaller tournaments through the 1990s.
The men's 50 metre rifle three positions team competition at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar was held on 7 December at the Lusail Shooting Range.