Henares, Palmario shine in PNSA benchrest tiff

MANILA, Philippines - Daniel “Danby” Henares and Marlon Palmario captured two gold medals each in the Philippine National Shooting Association’s monthly benchrest competition recently at the Marine Range in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig.

Henares shot 692 in the semi auto class to win his first gold and 743 in the 25-meter light varmint class for his second gold.

Sporter class shooter Palmario dominated the 25m (743) and 50m (723) .

“This month’s contest is the start of the medal count for next year so winning in this fashion is a desirable result” said Henares.

Open champ Randy Paronda edged shooter Tony Olbes in a thrilling tiebreaker to rule the 25-meter heavy varmint class.

“This is a new class just being introduced, many shooters including myself are still groping but it’s good to set the record,” said Paronda.

Olbes beat Paronda by one point for the gold in the 50m heavy varmint.

Benchrest shooting uses a 22 caliber match rifle to target a 1 mm bullseye at 25 and 50 meters.

“We have the most accurate shooters in the country, they are so good they can take the head off a passing fly,” said PNSA director Richard Fernandez.

In the light varmint class novice, shooter Arvee Jeremillo stomped on the big guns to take the gold with a score of 730 points.

“We are actually sending an official Philippine team to Pilsen Czech Republic in August to compete there and we hope that Henares can be part of that team,” Fernandez added.