TargetTalk

Hi all,

I have a hypothetical: can an athlete be eligible to compete in different shooting disciplines at the same ISSF match? For example, can one shoot 50m prone at 50m pistol (if there are no time conflicts) at the same competition (provided that the athlete qualified for the national team, etc. etc.)

I don't know specifically about rifle, but a lot of the top level AP shooters also compete in 50m and/or 25m pistol events at the same match venue. This is not a problem in terms of the rules. It might become physically challenging for some shooters.

Pistol shooters tend to shoot only pistol events, and a few of them do shoot all ISSF events, for example, Neustruev.
Rifle shooters are the same, shooting all six events.
However nowadays it is rare for one to shoot outside of his discipline. It is rare for a running target shooter to shoot rifle even if he uses rifle.
In the old days it is not unusual to have someone shoot all events, Konrad Staeheli for example shot both rifles and pistols.

To answer the original question, yes, no problem.

Thank you conradin for the historical reference. So, it is not against ISSF rules to shoot both rifle and pistol at the same competition?

The reason why I am asking, a friend of mine (not from US) was denied a chance to shoot in two different disciplines (RT and AP) at the national championship. He was medaling in one and making finals in the other. And the reason for refusal was that it is against ISSF rules....which I didn't think was the case.

After running target was cut from the olympic program, a number of RT shooters switched to rifle (Hank Gray in US for example) or pistol. Andrei Kazak of Belarus shot RT in Athens in 2004 and FP in London in 2012 (I am talking Olympics here for Kazak!)

I understand that a pistol shooter can compete in all pistol events, and same is for rifle. But is it ok with ISSF for someone like Kazak to go to WCH and participate in both RT and FP events, provided that there are no time conflicts?

David Levene wrote:To answer the original question, yes, no problem.

Thank you David

Was your friend given the ISSF rule number or quoted the text of this supposed rule?

Gerard wrote:Was your friend given the ISSF rule number or quoted the text of this supposed rule?

I don't think so....he was just told that he can no longer do it, although he did it for the few competitions at the national level (again, not in US)

kaban56 wrote:Thank you conradin for the historical reference. So, it is not against ISSF rules to shoot both rifle and pistol at the same competition?

The reason why I am asking, a friend of mine (not from US) was denied a chance to shoot in two different disciplines (RT and AP) at the national championship. He was medaling in one and making finals in the other. And the reason for refusal was that it is against ISSF rules....which I didn't think was the case.

As others have mentioned there is absolutely nothing to prevent shooters doing that in the rules. I did just that at our English championships in 2012 which is run to full ISSF rules, I shot both air pistol and prone rifle at the same meeting.

Rob.