Visually impaired shooting continues development

A competition in Innsbruck, Austria, in September 2017 is set to help continue the development of shooting for visually impaired athletes.

The 2. Alpine Cup is being run by the Austrian Association for Handicap Sports, the OBSV, and supported by World Shooting Para Sport between 12-17 September.

Between 50-80 shooters from 20 countries are expected to compete at the event which will help finalise the rules, regulations and classification system for visually impaired shooting.

It is the second competition to take place following the Visually Impaired Shooting Grand Prix in Stoke Mandeville, Great Britain, in January 2015.

The Grand Prix was an essential part of the project’s initiation to define a sport-specific classification system. The focus is now shifting to cementing the rules, regulations and classification system.

The 2. Alpine Cup will take place at the Innsbruck-Arzl shooting range 5km outside of Innsbruck.

Qualification and finals will be held in 10m air rifle standing (40 shots, women and 60 shots, men) and 10m air rifle prone (60 shots, men’s and women’s).

Entries can be made via the competition website.

Open to athletes who have a visual impairment, the discipline of visually impaired shooting is a challenge of accuracy and control, in which competitors use air rifles to fire a series of shots at a stationary target.

Athletes use an audio signal to guide them in their aiming, with the audio signal rising in pitch as the point of aim moves nearer to the centre of the target.

More information about visually impaired shooting can be found at World Shooting Para Sport’s website.

The project’s progress follows that of shotgun and Para trap shooting. The first World Cup in that discipline will be held in Lonato, Italy, between 15-16 September.

Two Grand Prix were held in 2015 and 2016 before Para trap was officially taken under World Shooting Para Sport at the end of 2016.

A two year review will now take place of the rules, regulations and classification system.