Rio de Janeiro hosts the 2013 Brazilian Open Shooting Championships, an unprecedented Paralympic Shooting competition in the Americas, which takes place until next Sunday at the National Shooting Centre (CNTE in Portuguese) in Deodoro neighbourhood. The competition gathers 77 shooters from seven countries – Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Colombia, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela – and started with Brazil on top of the podium. On Thursday, the 3^rd, 42 year-old Geremias Soares, from the state of Paraná, won the championships’ first gold medal.

And there is nothing better than to start with a thrilling battle, defined by a tenth. In the 10 metre air rifle standing, Geremias Soares scored 192.9 points against 192.8 scored by silver medallist Benedito Silva, from the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Helcio Perilo, from the state of Goiás, who broke the American record by scoring 596 points in the qualifiers, took bronze.

“I’m relieved. The competition was almost over for me when I scored 8.6 but soon afterwards I hit an almost perfect shot and, with 10.7, I won such an important title”, Geremias said. He learned to shoot three years ago but and has been competing for only a year.

“People say I’m talented, that I’d be a complete shooter if I had started earlier but truth is I’m very lucky. I feel right at home here. The event’s organisation is excellent, people are very welcoming here and the CNTE is a fantastic place. This day couldn’t be better”, he celebrated.

Despite the Brazilian monopoly of the podium, Colombian shooters made the competition more thrilling. Competing in the first international competition of his career, Juan Camilo Soto finished fourth and praised the initiative of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee (CPB in Portuguese) to organise this first Paralympic Shooting competition of the Americas.

“This competition is very important. We meet athletes from all over the Americas, exchanging information and learning from one another. It’s very hard for us to participate in the international events held in Europe. Competing in a high-level event here is more economically viable and, by joining forces, we’ll manage to get closer to the technical level of the world’s greatest shooters”, the 33 year-old shooter said. He was Colombian champion in 2011.

Minister of Sport Aldo Rebelo, the Presidents of the Brazilian Olympic and Paralympic Committees Carlos Arthur Nuzman and Andrew Parsons, respectively, National Secretary of High Performance Sports Ricardo Leyser and London 2012 Olympic medallist in Modern Pentathlon Yane Marques, from the state of Pernambuco, attended the event.

Paralympic Shooting still needs to progress a lot in the Americas. In London 2012, twelve gold medals were handed out in the sport but no shooter from the Americas made it to the podium and only five representatives from the continent took part in the competition.

Of all sports that are part of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games programme, Paralympic Shooting (just like Wheelchair Fencing) is not part of the Parapan American Games programme, whose next edition will be Toronto 2015. However, with this first competition in the American continent, the sport’s chances of being included in the 2019 Parapan American Games programme increase considerably.

"The idea is to make more people in this country aware of the sport. We did something similar in 2011 with Wheelchair Fencing and the results were excellent, yielding an unprecedented gold medal (won by Jovanne Guissone, from the state of Rio Grande do Sul), in addition to an increased number of athletes participating in the sport. If we have the same level of success with IPC Shooting, we will be able to achieve our goal again”, Andrew Parsons said.