It is shooting Para sport time in Rotterdam

Day 10 of the European Para Championships marks the start of the shooting Para sport events in Rotterdam. Nearly 130 athletes from 30 European nations will compete in nine medal events from 17 to 20 August (Thursday to Sunday) at the Rotterdam Ahoy.

The European Para Championships will also distribute six direct slots for the nations at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games – slots are distributed to National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) and not individually to athletes. 

The Paris 2024 quota allocation includes the top one ranked male athlete in the rifle R1 and pistol P1 events, the top one ranked female athlete in the rifle R2 and pistol P2 events, as well as the top female and male ranked athletes in the rifle R4 event.

The first day of shooting Para sport action will see new champions crowned in the R4 - mixed 10m air rifle standing SH2 and R1 - men's 10m air rifle standing SH1.

Twenty-five shooters from 15 countries will take part in the R4 event, including the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic gold and silver medallists, Sweden’s Philip Jonsson and Slovenia’s Francek Gorazd Tirsek, respectively.  

The duo failed to reach the R4 podium in last year’s two major events, the European 10m Championships in Hamar, Norway and the World Championships in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. But Tirsek has a European title in his resume from Belgrade 2018.

France’s R4 world champion Tanguy de la Forest took a bronze medal in the last Euros and is another medal contender. His compatriot Kevin Liot comes to Rotterdam as the defending European champion. Great Britain’s Ryan Cockbill separated the two on the Hamar 2022 podium and had a successful last season bringing home a bronze from the Al Ain 2022 Worlds. 

The R1 – men’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 wraps up day one with plenty of international stars aiming at their first podium in Rotterdam. Ukraine’s Andrii Doroshenko is the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic silver medallist. Seventh place in the Games, France’s Didier Richard finished second in the last World Championships. 

Serbia’s Laslo Suranji is the current European champion in the event. The other medallists from Hamar 2022 will also be competing at the Rotterdam Ahoy shooting range, Denmark’s Jens Frimann (silver) and Hungary’s Csaba Rescsik (bronze).

Vision impaired debut

Friday’s programme includes the R3 - mixed 10m air rifle prone SH1 and the VIS - mixed 10m air rifle standing SH-VI.

Slovakia’s Veronika Vadovicova is the defending European and world champion in the R3. The 40-year-old is one of the shooting Para sport greatest with six Paralympic medals to her name, including four golds.

Radoslav Malenovsky is another Slovakian medal contender. He finished second at Hamar 2022 making it a one-two podium finish for Slovakia in the R3. 

Ukraine’s Iryna Shchetnik is the R3 bronze medallist from the last Paralympic Games in Tokyo while Israel’s Yulia Chernoy took bronze at Al Ain 2022.

The VIS - mixed 10m air rifle standing SH-VI is one of the two medal events for vision impaired athletes at this year’s European Para Championships. 

Poland’s Barbara Moskal has dominated the VIS since it became a shooting Para sport class in 2019. She has two world titles (Sydney 2019 and Al Ain 2022) and one European gold (Hamar 2022) on her CV.

Moskal’s compatriot Katarzyna Orzechowska picked silver at last year’s World Championships and bronze at the Euros while Spain’s Maria Sonia Rivero Fernandez was the silver medallist in Norway. Both will be battling for more medals in Rotterdam.

 Weekend action

Vadovicova returns to the shooting range on Saturday for the R2 - women's 10m air rifle standing SH1. It is another even in which she topped the podium at the last European and World Championships.

Shchetnik had to settle for silver behind Vadovicova in the last two editions of the World Championships and will be aiming at changing the colour of her medal in the Netherlands.

The P1 - men's 10m air pistol SH1 is the opening pistol event on the programme. Czechia’s Tomas Pesek is the world champion from Sydney 2019 and European champion from Hamar 2022.

Poland’s Szymon Sowinski took a silver medal in the last World Championships and was the best-placed European shooter in the P1 final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games finishing sixth.

In the P2 - women's 10m air pistol SH1, Turkey’s world champion Aysel Ozgan will be looking at claiming the elusive European gold following a silver and a bronze in the last two editions. 

Oliveira Nakovska-Bikova won North Macedonia’s first-ever Paralympic gold medal in this event at London 2012. She is also the defending European champion. Turkey’s Aysegul Pehlivanlar and Hungary’s Krisztina David are also ones to watch as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic silver and bronze medallist, respectively. 

The closing day of the European Para Championships will host two shooting Para sport finals, in the VIP - mixed 10m air rifle prone SH-VI and the R5 - mixed 10m air rifle prone SH2.

Finland’s Timo Nystrom made history in 2019 as the first vision impaired athlete to be crowned world champion winning the VIP event. Spain’s Ager Solabarrieta Txakartegi then replaced Nystrom as the world title holder from Al Ain 2022.

Txakartegi is also the Hamar 2022 European champion and will be battling for more gold on Dutch soil. Among the other 14 athletes from seven countries competing in the VIP are Nystrom, Poland’s Moskal (silver at Hamar 2022) and Croatia’s Fran Skracic, bronze medallist at the Al Ain 2022 Worlds.

Wrapping up the action in Rotterdam, the R5 is the event with most participant athletes (35) and nations (17) at this year’s championships. Joep van Lankveld is the sole Dutch representative and finished in 11th place at the last Euros in Norway.

Dutch fans will also see all three Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games medallists in the R5. Serbia’s Dragan Ristic topped the podium in Japan followed by Vasyl Kovalchuk in second and Slovenia’s Tirsek in third. Kovalchuk went one better to take the world title in Al Ain with another bronze for Tirsek.

Great Britain made it a one-two podium at the European 10m Championships in Hamar last year with Ryan Cockbill taking gold and James Bevis silver. Sweden’s Philip Jonsson bagged the bronze medal. 

The European Para Championships will be streamed live on the official page. Complete schedule and results can be found here.