TargetTalk

New competition formats in Pistol/Rifle/Shotgun, which were approved by the ISSF Executive Committee, come into force. They are now posted on the ISSF website and will apply to all ISSF competitions from 1 January 2022.

Once again ISSF has out done themselves by making the finals even more confusing for both the athletes and spectators.

https://www.issf-sports.org/news.ashx?newsid=3680

It is really saddening to see how the shooting events are being reduced to TV spectacles at the expense of the shooters themselves. The reality is that the only people really interested in watching say a RF final are fellow shooters. There is no way that non shooters are ever going to “stumble upon” a shooting final and rejoice in the knowledge that they have found a new viewing pleasure - regrettably.

Sad as it is to say, shooting as a spectator sport for the general population is probably a thing of the past. The IOC has become too commercial and has left Baron Pierre de Coubertin spinning in his grave. Bring on the break dancers, skate boarders and speed rock climbers…

Bob

If I read the new format correctly having two separate semifinals means there is the possibility of the 3rd or 4th best shooters not making it to the 4 person medal match.

Who the devil thinks up these things? It is like Abbot and Costello explaining baseball? 3 pages to relearn a shooting event procedure? Semi and finals, where a 10 can be worth 4 points or is it 3?

The new Airgun finals were written by someone that has no idea what they are doing (and defintely no idea how to write a rule).
"c.) Shooting Procedure:
* Athletes start from zero and make 10 shots.
* The value of the best shot is 4 points.
* The value of the second result - 3 points.
* The value of the third result - 2 points.
* And the value of the worst shot is 1 point."

Does this mean all athletes get 10 points for their 4 shots that meet the instructions above, or do they compare the nth shot from each shooter and assign points as above after each shooter has completed that shot?
Does this mean that if all 4 shooters shoot a 10, then some of them could get three more points than another, even if separated by .1 (i.e. 3x10.6 and 1x10.5)?

There is no mention of the amount of time to shoot the first 10 shots, or the 5 shots that follow after the first person is eliminated.

"When all announcements are made, CRO announces, Take your positions. After one minute, 5 minutes are allowed for prep and sighting. Changeover time between Semi1 and Semi2 is 2 minutes"

Does this mean Semi2 competitors shoot sighters at the same time as Semi1, and then sit cooling off for 20 minutes (or however long it takes to finish Semi1 with any ties), and then have just 2 minutes to prepare for live firing with no additional sighters? Or does the spectators have to sit thru another boring 5 minute prep and sighter period?

Then there is another boring 10 minutes changeover time before the finals, and finalists remain at the point they were on for semis (could be spread all across the rage, or 3 close and one farther away).

Now we do the same boring 10 minute and 5 minute process to eliminate 4th place and the Bronze medalist.

Finally the last two standing (quite likely the only two still awake), make single shots (again no time limit specified). High score gets 2 points on each shot, and low score gets a 0. If they tie, both get 1 point. First one to get 16 points wins, unless there is another tie. So the final could take just 8 shots if one person "wins" every shot, 15 shots if they alternate winning, or more if there are also ties.

You have got to be kidding me. I did not agree with the first change in the finals format (when we went away from the old ten shot final); but the new format had plenty of merits, as it has been fun to watch, and I love the three position final. I just got done reading the rules. It makes just about zero sense. I can tell you as a middle school math teacher, it it takes three or more sentences to explain directions (let alone the three or more pages from the ISSF) , you have lost everyone. This insane. Tell me again what was wrong with the "new final" they came up with? Why the change? They think are going to draw more spectators to watch funny looking positions in shooting suits with space guns by changing the format? And now there is only six minutes from kneeling to prone, when there use to be seven? Not to mention the fact that a ten might be worth four points? Last time I checked a ten is worth ten points, plus the value in the tenths place to go with it. I don't agree with this at all. I appreciate the update on the matter.

-Zach

Any format that negates the first 60 shots is a poor format from my perspective. If you were in the lead by 5 points in the qualifying round, that should count for something.

Adding 20 decimal shots on top of the qualifying round would be more fair to the statistically better shooters.

Well at least they left the shooting boots alone.
It would kill the sport if they were less flexible.