Sport shooting - the ultimate rush

As I write this, I’m still on a high from the adrenalin rush of the 9th Bolo Tuason Cup, that prestigious shooting competition just recently concluded (last Sunday, June 28 was the final day). 

Nope, I wasn’t a competitor, just a kibitzer who gawked at the prowess that the country’s top shooters displayed that Sunday. My young son Ray Louis and I went there on the invitation of Mr. Demetrio “Bolo” Tuason, president of Armscor, for the last day of the much-awaited two-day shoot fest and we grabbed the chance to watch the top guns in action.

The venue was the Armscor Shooting Range in Parang, Marikina, just about the largest shooting range in the country today. The vast, sprawling grounds had as many as four hundred registered participants, and perhaps just as many, if not more, kibitzers who went there to see the action. Count this father and son team among them, because that Sunday my son and I really savored the up-close experience, never mind if we were not actually competing. We still got to fire our guns at the most appropriate venue, like responsible gun owners, and received handy, practical tips on target shooting as well as practical shooting from the men and women who ran the show and the range. Would you believe the top honcho of Armscor Shooting Center & Range is a lady? Gina Marie Angangco is her name, and she is concurrently the president of the range and the Senior VP for Corporate Planning & Business Development for Armscor, the parent company. She’s been with the Armscor Group since 1991, starting off with the holding company, Squires Bingham.

The Bolo Tuason Cup actually started in 2001, when Armscor officials thought of the idea to have one such event to coincide with Bolo’s birthday which falls in July. That was also the time that Armscor was hosting the NCR competition, so it was a most appropriate time to launch the Bolo Tuason Cup, now on its 9th year.

This year saw a really big crowd, and we spotted erstwhile veteran, both in showbiz and in the sport of shooting, Mr. Eddie Garcia. Eddie is a member of the Armscor Shooting Club and has been active in the sport since the 1970s. He was there for the competition as part of the PB Dionisio Team and shares that he finds the sport one of the best disciplines yet.

Bolo says that the sport of shooting is one where the Filipino can excel. It doesn’t take height or weight, speed or agility to excel here. A lot of focus, a lot of self-discipline and sense of responsibility – these are the stuff that could yet make a champion out of you. We did see a wide range of participants, from the young crowd to the veterans, from yuppies to retired sportsmen. There were several ladies too of varying ages who came to compete, the acrid smell of gunpowder in the air and the staccato bursts of gunfire giving them an all-time high.

We took the opportunity to ask Mr. Norman Doromal who was there as a top official of PPSA (Philippine Practical Shooting Assn) which acts as an umbrella organization for the country’s shooting associations. A host club that sanctions a match still has to seek PPSA’s nod before they can organize any shooting competition. Norman was there as a range officer, and overall marshal, to oversee the conduct of the 9th Bolo Cup and enforce the rules set by the PPSA for all the competitors and guide the participants through these stringent rules.

There were 13 stages in this event, and the various participants we interviewed had different versions of which stage was the most difficult, but they all agreed it was the most technical and most challenging competition yet. Boch Alcantara thought it was the 9th stage where they had to shoot only nine rounds from a prone position, hitting all-steel targets. His gun was an SPS platform on an STI slide and he competed in the Modified Division. Rico Papa, another competitor from the Rizal Shooters Club who has been shooting for 18 years, had a STI Magnus. Incidentally, he was leading the Modified Division when we chatted him up. Amiel Soriano, a young shooter who has been into the sport for only four years, was running 4th over-all. Amiel has been with Team Armscor for two years now and used an STI 38 caliber for the competition.

What’s the modified division?

All guns are supposed to fit into a custom-made box (all ranges have their own box), the size of which is 225 mm x 150 mm x 45 mm. Whether you’re using a standard Glock or a modified STI, these guns should be able to fit into this box.

For every target, there is a corresponding score, so this is how the scoring goes. Like any competition, they are prepared to handle protests, just in case. An arbitration committee hears and deliberates on these protests.

It was a grueling all-day competition. The stage was well designed, but getting from one stage to another, in difficult positions with varying targets, some stationary, others moving, required a more than modest amount of stamina and a lot of concentration power. You couldn’t waver from one stage to another if you wanted to be in the running. All 13 stages were well planned, and the participants not only had to hone their shooting skills, many of them had cardio and leg exercises to help sustain them through the very tough competition.

Armscor has been supporting Filipino shooters. They have been a pillar for the Philippine Team and will continue being there for them. They are also now the Official Match Ammunition for several world shoots, counting the one in Ecuador in 2005 and the world shoot of 2008. The next one, I think, will be in 2011, and Armscor will be there again as Official Match Ammunition.

It is also heartwarming to hear of Armscor’s civic contribution to the community where they belong. Apart from sponsoring medical missions in their locale, they also support the orphanage which is located in their community.

Likewise, they provide training programs for our police officers, some of whom need to hone their skills further for the job.

Congratulations for a very successful 9th Bolo Cup.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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