On September 11-12, the Swiss IDPA Championships for handguns took place in Arcisate, Italy.
First to the obvious question: why are the Swiss championships taking place in Italy?
The answer is simple: a suitable infrastructure is practically (no longer) available in Switzerland.
In IDPA, the competitors shoot grouped into so-called squads (teams) of 10-15 participants. The squads shot in parallel on different stages (exercises). Each stage needs its own bay, in Swiss terminology: its own 'KD box' (short-distance box).
130 shooters and staff were registered for the Swiss championships and 10 stages were planned.
Since the Swiss shooters maintain very close international relationships, we were able to rent an ideal shooting range from our friends of the Defense360 Formazione Club in Arcisate, near the Swiss border. There are many IDPA shooters and competitions in Italy and the Italian championships are among the most popular competitions in the world. So the bar for our match was set quite high!
Now to the second pressing question: what is IDPA anyway?
The dynamic shooting sport was founded in the USA in 1996 and has existed in Switzerland since 2015. Close-to-stock handguns are used in different divisions, as well as equipment and clothing suitable for everyday use. The top priority is the safety of everyone involved and so the relevant rules are very strict. Each stage is led by two specially trained and certified SOs (Safety Officers) and only one shooter is active per bay. The scoring takes into account the time required to complete the exercise and the hits achieved and is added up over all stages at the end.
Since it was first held in 2016, our Swiss championships have developed from a rather small match with just about 40 shooters to an international competition with over 130 participants from a dozen different countries. In addition to the Swiss shooters, numerous competitors from Italy took part. Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Luxembourg and even Kenya were also represented on site.
The competition was led by 2 match directors and 25 safety officers. From Wednesday to Saturday morning, the stages were set up and then formally approved by the representative of the IDPA world association for safety and compliance with the rules. The shooting of the staff started on Saturday afternoon and the match for the regular competitors on Sunday. The weather was kind to us and we had ideal conditions the whole time.
The stages were quite demanding and diversified and tested a wide variety of shooting skills, such as: strong and weak hand, moving targets, partially covered targets, distances between 2 and 30 meters, paper and steel targets, standing- kneeling- and prone-positions, rapid firing sequences, numerous manipulations, rapid movements and much more.
In addition to precision and fast times, fun and comradeship should not be neglected. We are always happy to meet old friends from Switzerland and from abroad and to get to know new friends. In this way, the international shooting community is promoted, enlarged and welded together.
At the end of the demanding competition, the winners and the best Swiss in each division were determined:
SSP | Stock Service Pistol | 1. | Diego Silvestri | IT |
​ | ​ | 3. | Mathias Roethenmund | CH |
ESP | Enhanced Service Pistol | 1. | Alberto Bardella | IT |
​ | ​ | 8. | Tamas Illes | CH (HU) |
CO | Carry Optics | 1. | Aurimas Marozas | LT |
​ | ​ | 5. | Serge Wimpfheimer | CH |
CCP | Compact Carry Pistol | 1. | Dragos Manea | IT |
​ | ​ | 4. | Matthias Buch | CH |
CDP | Custom Defense Pistol | 1. | Andrej Lipa | LT |
​ | ​ | 2. | Andreas Pfenninger | CH |
REV | Revolver | 1. | Stefan Lais | CH |
BUG | Backup Gun | 1. | Maurizio Cartolano | IT |
The most important overall category winners with the best Swiss were:
Lady | 1. | Cristina Cesaroni | IT |
​ | 3. | Tanja Seiz | CH |
Senior | 1. | Aldo de Silvestro | IT |
​ | 2. | Serge Wimpfheimer | CH |
Distinguished Senior | 1. | Peter Kressibucher | CH |
Congratulations to all participants and of course especially to the winners!
The Championship was a great success and we would like to thank our sponsors Smith & Wesson, Prima Armi, Aebi Waffen, Phoenix and DH Network, all our staff and all participants for this wonderful event.
Planning for the 2022 championships is already starting now. If you want to start with IDPA yourself: A standardized training program by certified instructors is available! Get on board!
Sincerely
Andy Pfenninger
Are you interested in IDPA ?
General information about IDPA: www.idpa.com
Information about IDPA in Switzerland: www.swissaaa.org/idpa-info
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