South American Shooting Sport Championships to start this Monday at Deodoro Sport Complex
In this event 288 athletes from 12 countries will be competing until the 24th at one of the venues especially built for the Pan American Games 2007
Photo: Alex Ferro
Starting on Sunday, March 16, at 10:00 am, the Deodoro Sport Complex, one of the venues especially built for the Pan American Games Rio 2007, will be hosting the South American Shooting Sport Championships. At the National Shooting Sport Center Guilherme Paraense, 288 athletes from 12 countries will be competing until March 24. The presence of Julio Almeida and Stenio Yamamoto, Brazilian representatives at the Olimpic Games Beijing 2008 is confirmed. Championship highlights include two-time Norwegian Olympic medalist Harald Stenvaag: three position rifle bronze, at Sydney-2000; and 50m prone rifle silver, at Barcelona-1992.
The official competitions of the South American Championships will bring together athletes from seven countries of the Americas (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela and Bolivia) but, for the first time, athletes from nations outside South America like Angola, Arab Emirates, Greece, Switzerland and Norway have been invited to participate. This will enhance the level of the competitions and afford Brazilians a better opportunity to prepare for the Olympic Games. Stenio Yamamoto, for example, will have the chance of facing Swiss Christoph Schmid, one of his adversaries in Beijing. The South American Championships will be an important preparation stage. We want to be in perfect shape for the Olympic Games, explained Stenio, entered for the 50m pistol event, in which he will be competing also in Beijing.
Qualified also for the Olympic Games, during the South American Championships Júlio Almeida will have a chance of preparing for the Brazilian phase of the World Cup, to be held from March 22 to 28, also at the Deodoro Sport Complex. Júlio will then try to qualify to compete in the 50m pistol free event in Beijing he has already qualified for the 10m air gun and 25m rapid fire 25m competitions. I think this time Ill make it. Here in Brazil I will be relying on very good weapon and Im getting really close to my goal, said Julio, 10m air pistol silver medalist at the Pan American Games Rio 2007.
The South American Championships will also mark the return to Brazil of three Argentinean competitors who stepped up the podium during Rio 2007. The highlight is trap competition gold medalist Juan Carlos Dasque who then also set a new Pan American record with 138 hits. The others are 50m three position rifle bronze medalist Juan Angeloni and skeet bronze medalist Melisa Gil.
The National High Performance Sport Secretary of the Ministry of Sport, Djan Madruga, underlined the significance of Deodoro Sport Complex to Brazilian sport. These championships confirm Brazilian capacity to host large sporting events and add new strength to our application to host the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. Deodoro is a fully operational Pan American Games venue. Together, this South American Championships and the World Cup make up seven competitions since the closing of the Parapan American Games, practically one every month. This proves that several types of events can be staged here, Djan Madruga remarked.
The South American Shooting Sport Championships and this phase of the ISSF World Cup are both organized by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) and the Brazilian Shooting Sport Federation (CBTE), counting on Petrobras sponsorship and support from the Ministry of Sport, the Brazilian Olympic Committee (BOC) and the Brazilian Army.
