The 1st World Shooting Championship was organized in Lyon, France in 1897, one year after the 1st Modern Olympic Games in Athens. Teams from France, Holland, Italy, Norway and Switzerland competed in only one event, 300-meter rifle. Competitors fired on the same target (10 cm. 10-ring) that is still used for 300-meter rifle events and Frank Jullien from Switzerland became the first World Individual Champion.

During their early years, World Championships were held every year except when they were interrupted by war. They grew from the modest beginning of 1897; events and nations initially were added very slowly at first. The 7th World Championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1903 was the first held outside of Europe. The 17th World Championship in 1913 was conducted at Camp Perry, in the USA. The 21st World Championship was also staged at Camp Perry in 1923 and the 40th World Championship in 1970 was organized at the Ben Avery Shooting Range near Phoenix, Arizona. The 1st World Trap Championship was held in Austria in 1933, but shotgun events did not become part of “combined” World Championships until after World War II.

The expansion of the World Championship program into its present gargantuan proportions began after the war when the present once-every-four-years format was adopted. New events were added so that today the schedule includes six men’s rifle events fired at distances of 10, 50 and 300 meters, five women’s rifle events at 10, 50 and 300 meters, five men’s pistol events at 10, 25 and 50 meters, two women’s pistol events at 10 and 25 meters, three men’s shotgun events, three women’s shotgun events, four men’s running target events at 10 and 50 meters and two women’s running target events. Altogether, there are 30 men’s and women’s events. Junior events were added to the program in 1994 and there are now 24 junior men’s and women’s rifle, pistol shotgun and running target events for a total of 54 different events, each with individual and team awards. Team competitions in international championships are for three-person teams.

The 10-meter range at the Munich Hochbrück Range has 100 firing points, each equipped with electronic targets that will be supplied by the Sius Company of Switzerland.

After beginning with just five nations, that small international competition evolved into a true world championship.

 Championships after World War II were held in many different countries including Venezuela, the USSR, Egypt and Korea. The fact that 103 nations have entered shooters in the Munich World Championship should be sufficient proof that ISSF shooting today is a true world sport.

The range that will host the Championship is arguably the best overall shooting facility in the world. Munich’s Hochbrück Olympic Range is located just north of the city of Munich. It was originally built to host the 1972 Olympic shooting events. The range was turned over to the Bavarian Shooting Sports Federation and with support from the Bavarian state government it has been significantly expanded and improved since 1972. Today, the Hochbrück range boosts 102 50 meter firing points, 100 10 meter firing points, 50 25 meter firing points, five combined skeet and trap ranges and a complete Finals Hall. Those facilities will be augmented with several large temporary structures during the championship.
 

A panorama view of the five combined trap and skeet fields at the Munich Hochbrück Range. A 21 meter high net is placed at the front of the range to catch as much of the lead shot as possible.

A big part of what will make this championship a great championship is the strong shooting sports tradition in Germany. The German Shooting Federation has over one and one-half million members and all of them are target shooters.
 

The Munich Hochbrück Range has a separate rifle-pistol finals hall that can accommodate 500 spectators. Tickets for the finals were sold out months ago.

Germany also has 15,000 shooting clubs. Indeed, the shooting club tradition in Germany is so strong that almost every city or town has at least one shooting club that is actively involved in the social fabric and life of their communities. Germans love and understand shooting. The World Championship organizing committee had no trouble finding enough volunteers to work the competitions and they have had to strictly limit the number of tickets that can be sold for spectators to be able to get into the ranges during the competitions.

The question regarding which nation is the overall best shooting nation will be settled by the awarding of the Gamal Abdel Nasser Trophy that is presented to the nation winning the most gold medals. China was the most recent winner having taken home the Nasser Trophy in 2006 and with an imposing entry of top shooters, is expected to finish at the top of the medal standings once again.
 

The World Championship “commercial row” is a long row of covered booths that will soon be filled with every major shooting equipment supplier.

The 115 member USA Shooting Team that is organized and supported by USA Shooting will be one of the contenders. With established international champions like Matt Emmons, Jamie Beyerle, Vince Hancock and many others, these shooters are expected to be in the hunt for several individual and team medals.

A major Championship highlight will be the Opening Ceremony that takes place on Friday afternoon in the Marienplaz, the main city squate in Munich. It lies directly in front of the Rathaus, the city hall. Speakers will include the Minister President of Bavaria, the Lord Mayor of Munich, German Shooting Federation President Josef Ambacher, ISSF President Olegario Vázquez Raña and the President of the International Olympic Committee Jacque Rogge.

Persons who are interested in the World Shooting Championship will have many opportunities to track the results and see telecasts of the competition events. All this and more is available through the ISSF website at http://www.issf-sports.org/. Once you open the website, you can choose to see live results during the events, archived results after the event, live streaming telecasts during the actual finals plus recorded telecasts of the complete finals as well as five-minute summaries of each final. In addition, I will post some personal comments and photos on my Facebook page. More and faster information about the triumphs and activities of this World Championship will be available than for any previous World Championship.

* The author, Gary Anderson, is the Director of Civilian Marksmanship Emeritus.  Anderson is a Vice President of International Shooting Sports Federation, the world governing body of shooting.  He is one of two officials appointed to serve as ISSF Technical Delegates for the 2010 World Shooting Championship.  Anderson won seven individual World Championships in the 38th and 39th World Championships.