Al-Mutawah and Al-Shatti win ‘Hit the Plate or Go’ scenario – Abubakar, Al-Sabah back on board for 2nd place

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KUWAIT CITY, Jan 21: It is another fun-filled shoot-out competition as the Filipino Action Shooting Team (FAST), Kuwait prepared for the combined precision and practical shooting competition and everyone came ready for the ‘Hit the Plate or Go’ scenario.

In the Standard Category, the main event of the competition, Mishal Al-Shatti came in with a vengeance and took the crown with his swift moves combined with a great aim together with Waleed Al-Mutawah for the Professional Category to bag both their first wins. Both shooters displayed perfect timing to secure their titles with a scenario designed by FAST Sec. Archie Cajucom and FAST President Ronil Paul Garcia.

The title of the scenario was given by Sr Chief Instructor Eric Ragma with Range Officer Wilbert Zingapan who oversees the competition and ensures the safety of everyone present on the range.

‘Hit the Plate or Go’ scenario is designed for the shooter to focus on his/her aim combined with proper movement to engage the targets.

At the start of the course, the shooter stands behind a door while the gun is in condition 3 (both magazines in the magazine pouch and the gun holstered), upon an audible command, the shooter enters the door and will decide to either engage the ‘plate’ target at 15 meters distance as they enter the door or go near the plate at 3 meters, hence, the title ‘Hit the Plate or Go’.

If the shooter engages the plate at 15 meters, the shooter will go through their right side to engage 6 targets that are heavily covered with barricades and placed at 9, 7 and 5 meters. They have to avoid hitting the barricades and no-shoot targets. At the last stage, there are 3 targets placed at 7 meters and the shooter has to engage the targets through a port hole.

The shooter can engage the targets in free-style either they do it while on the move or stationary. Several shooters elected to engage the plate at 15 meters because if they go through the path at 3 meters, they have to run back all the way up again through the starting line and then engage the rest of the targets which will definitely lengthen the time to finish the scenario.

Several shooters hit the plate while most of them missed even at 3 meters and proved that they really need to practice precision shooting as well.

At the start of the fun-shoot, Garcia told all the competitors that safety was the priority of both the range and the organization and briefed them with the scenario.

An aggregate scoring method is used to calculate the final score for each competitor with a bullet in Alpha earning 5 points, while in Bravo and Charlie brought 3 points and Delta 1 point. The time taken to complete the shoot plays a major part in the standing as the total score is divided by the time taken over the course to get the result.

 The shooter can also get penalized and 10 points deducted from the total score for procedural errors and hitting no-shoot targets, they can also be disqualified if they violate any gun safety handling rules.

As a general rule for the weekly competition, the first attempt will be the shooters final score although they can elect to do another attempt. If there is a malfunction of any range equipment during the first attempt, the shooter will be allowed to re-shoot and that the first attempt will be not be considered as his 1st attempt.

Standard Category

Taking on 1st place is Mishal Al-Shatti who has been missing from the range for almost a month and came back tonight to take the crown. He collected 15 Alpha and recorded the highest number of hits for the same category together with 4 Charlie with 1 Mike less than 37.59 seconds that gave him 2.0484 hit factors.

Abdelrahman Abubakar settled for 2nd place tonight and could have taken the crown from Al-Shatti if he had not missed. He finished the course in 39.69 seconds and collected 13 Alpha, 4 Charlie, 1 Delta and 1 Mike for 1.7133 hit factors.

Completing the ‘Tough 3’ line-up was FAST VP Cesar Isidro who slid one position down from being in 2nd for twice in a row. He finished the course in 34.99 seconds and collected 12 Alpha, 4 Charlie, 2 Delta and 2 Mikes that gave him 1.5433 hit factors.

In 4th place and falls under his own scenario is Cajucom. He completed the course in 31.46 seconds but was not able to hit the mark. He collected 9 Alpha, 5 Charlie, 4 Delta and 2 Mikes which is not normal for his performance that gave him 1.3986 hit factors.

Completing the ‘Magic 5’ is another shooter who was not seen for ages because of his busy schedules. He is Malik Javed Iqbal who took 5th place which is a good run after a long absence. He finished the course in 40.29 seconds and collected 11 Alpha, 6 Charlie, 2 Delta with 1 Mike and 1 procedural error for hitting a no-shoot target that gave him 1.3651 hit factors.

On his 2nd attempt, he finished the course in 40.09 seconds and collected all the alphabets with 11 Alpha, 1 Bravo, 5 Charlie, 2 Delta and 1 Miss for 1.6214 hit factors.

Ludivino ‘Butch’ Alinea settled for 6th place, another shooter who was missing in action and really needs to get back on track. He finished the course in 22.53 seconds the fastest time recorded in the same category but made a lot of misses. He collected 11 Alpha, 3 Charlie, 1 Delta and 5 Mikes for 0.6658 hit factors.

Last but not the least was Dalal Ali, who is the only female shooter participating in the competition. She finished the course in 67.37 seconds and collected 12 Alpha, 4 Charlie, 1 Delta and 3 Mikes for 0.6383 hit factors and a good for 7th place.

With a complete line-up for the standard category, Isidro and Cajucom maintained their positions in the ‘Magnificent 7’ line-up and joined by Al-Shatti, Abubakar, Iqbal, Alinea and Ms Ali.

Professional Category

In the Professional Category, Waleed Al-Mutawah returns to capture the 1st place tonight with a great run. He finished the course in 22.29 seconds which is recorded as the fastest time in the same category.

He collected all the alphabets with 16 Alpha, 2 Charlie, 1 Delta and 1 Mike for 3.4545 hit factors.

Humoud Al Sabah, another shooter who missed two competitions was back in action and finished the course in 27.20 seconds. He collected 17 Alpha, the highest number of hits with 2 Charlie and 1 Mike for 2.9779 hit factors that gave him 2nd place for tonight.

On his 2nd attempt, he improved on his time with 23.55 seconds and gave a prefect performance after collecting 11 Alpha and 9 Charlie for 3.4820 hit factors.

Mohammed Al-Sadoon moved up and captured 3rd place to complete the ‘Tough 3’ line-up with another good run. He finished the course in 26.98 seconds and collected 13 Alpha, 4 Charlie and 2 Delta that gave him 2.9281 hit factors.

There was no stopping Al-Sadoon from taking the course again. He took on the course under 25.31 seconds and collected 10 Alpha, 8 Charlie and 1 Mike for 2.5286 hit factors.

Garcia settled for 4th place after making a back-to-back win which is not his norm. He finished the course in 26.11 seconds and collected 10 Alpha, 7 Charlie and 2 Delta that gave him 2.7959 hit factors that put him on the bottom of the board tonight.

With the above result, only Garcia retained a position in the top 4 line-up for the Professional Category joined by Al-Mutawah, Al Sabah and Al Sadoon who replaced Al Mutariat, Al-Kandari and Al Ansari who could not compete tonight.

Meanwhile, FAST officials have announced that all newcomers and members wishing to participate in the weekly shoots should come to the range ahead of time for a ‘dry run’ over the course.

The aim of this dry run is to ensure the newcomers safety as well as that of all those present at the range. Those newcomers who fail to turn up for this dry run will not be allowed to take part in the actual competition.

On the other hand, FAST officials would like to invite everyone Tuesday evenings to the weekly fun-shoot competitions at 1800 hours.

For details, on all FAST activities, contact Garcia on 66368018 and Isidro on 99530301 or look us up on Facebook ‘FAST – Kuwait’.

By Ronchie dela Cruz – Special to the Arab Times

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