Henares captures gold in National Open shootfest

MANILA, Philippines - San Miguel Beer team manager Danby Henares showed his expertise in a different field as he won a gold medal in the 2015 Benchrest Rifle National Open of the Philippine National Shooting Association recently at the Marine Range in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.    

Henares, shooting in the light varmint class, scored 739 out of a possible 750 to defeat all shooters in his class.  Bench Rifle shooters are required to hit a 1mm. target at 50 meters using scoped Olympic rifles.  Philippine BR shooters are considered world class.  

 “I have won the National Open before, but in a different class. This is the first time though that I have won the National Open in the light varmint class,” said Henares, who incidentally also holds the Philippine record for the highest score in this class.  

For most of the week Henares serves as the team manager of the San Miguel Beer basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association, but he remarks, “I did spend some time getting ready for the National Open, while the PBA was on a break. The other shooters came prepared and I did my homework.”   

Henares also settled for the silver medal in the heavy varmint class, shooting in typhoon, windy conditions.

“When you are forced to shoot precision rifles with high wind speed, all the training goes out the window and the contest becomes a free for all.  And that’s exactly what happened,” Henares said after having to compete in the middle of a storm.

The other winners were Tomas Canto (silver) and Ramon Diaz (bronze).