RA Gun Club News
September 2024
Women’s Day on the Range On September 7 the RA hosted a Woman’s Day at the Range and as always it was a great success with 20 women participating in the event. What made it even more exciting was the fact that one of the Range Officers (George Kozoriz) arranged to have The 1984 Shooting Gold medalist Linda Thom attend and show the participants see her Gold Medal. It will be hard to top this experience at future events. Linda was pleased to be invited and would like to attend more Woman’s Day events. August 2023
RA Gun Club’s Remi Doucet Wins 2023 IPSC Canadian National Championships
RA Gun Club member, Remi Doucet finished first overall at the 2023 International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) Canadian National Championships in Selkirk, Manitoba, beating out a field of 438 elite competitors. With this year’s win, Remi now holds National Championship titles in three Divisions: Production Division (2014); Standard Division (2018 & 2019); and Open Division (2023). As a result, he is referred to as a “Triple Crown” National Champion in the IPSC world and he is the only Canadian to have accomplished this feat. He also holds the classification of Grand Master in each of these Divisions which is the highest proficiency classification level awarded to IPSC athletes. During the week of August 7-13, 2023, IPSC competitors from across Canada convened in Selkirk, Manitoba to compete in the 2023 IPSC National Championships. The IPSC Handgun Nationals is a very special event. Once each year, IPSC athletes travel across our extremely vast country to celebrate our sport and determine champions. No where else do competitors travel the distances Canadians do in order to compete against each other at national events.
This year’s Nationals consisted of 18 stages which involved obstacles that needed to be overcome. These included things such as moving targets, standing targets, metal plates, and a great many different “set-up” scenarios. A good example was stage 11 titled “Date Night”. Competitors had to start this course of fire sitting with their shoulders rested on the back of a bench and their hands resting on their knees. When the start signal sounded, competitors stood up, drew their handgun and engaged targets that were strategically placed behind obstacles, to obscure the competitors sightline, and engaged two rapidly swinging metal plates and two metal poppers, all the while moving laterally through the shooting area to be able to see around the barriers obscuring the sightline to the targets. Scores for each competitor are calculated using a formula based on the total score of hits divided by the time it takes a competitor to complete the course of fire. This is known as the “Hit Factor”. Given the level of competitiveness scores are factored to 4 decimal points. The competitor with the highest hit factor gets all the available points while other competitors are given points based on their hit factor percentage compared to the winner. This scoring system makes the competitors strive for the highest accuracy in the shortest amount of time. At the end of the match all competitor scores from each stage are tallied and the winner is declared. There are several ways to secure a spot to shoot the Nationals. A competitor can be awarded a registration code (which guarantees a spot to compete) by qualifying through a provincial IPSC Section, such as IPSC Ontario. This involves competing in at least two Level 3 qualifying matches and being selected through a provincial ranking. After the provincial teams are identified the remaining spots available are filled through an on-line registration process which begins at a specified time and date. Given the demand to compete in the Nationals, on-line registration usually fills up within a couple of minutes. The only other way to secure a spot is through sponsorship of the match or through the benevolence of the Match Director should extraordinary circumstances support. During the qualifying period for the 2023 Nationals, through the IPSC Ontario Team Qualifying Program, Remi and his wife were welcoming a new addition to their family. As such, the opportunity to secure a spot on the provincial team was eclipsed by a higher calling. Given Remi’s standing in the IPSC community, the membership of the RA Gun Club, with the support of RA management, explored options to secure Remi a spot to compete. During discussions with the Match Director of the 2023 Nationals, the circumstances that restricted Remi from securing a spot through the IPSC Ontario Team qualifying process were explained and the Match Director awarded Remi with a registration code. Like the adage goes, “the rest was history”. Join us in congratulating Remi in his fourth National title win and wishing him the best as he prepares to compete in the 2024 National Championships in Peterborough, Ontario and the 2025 IPSC World Shoot (an Olympic Level event that has Olympic observer status) in South Africa. |