Namibia records strong stage finish at world champs

The Namibia Precision Rifle Association (NAPRA) team concluded its campaign at the International Precision Rifle Federation (IPRF) World Championship with a 10th-place final standing and several top-five and top-ten individual stage finishes in Texas, United States.

The championship ran from 24 to 27 September, with Francois Marais, Liebies Liebenberg, Janus van der Merwe, Keiran Mans, Dirk Sauber and Michael Barlow competing in the Open Division at the Gravestone Precision Shooting Range near Lipan, Texas.

The event attracted over 280 participants from 24 nations across the globe, where shooters fired over 200 rounds over distances up to 848 meters.

In the team classification, Namibia secured 10th place out of the competing nations, recording 660 total impacts across their top four shooters and achieving an overall 82.50% success rate.

The United States won the championship with 743 impacts (92.87% success rate), followed by Australia in second (718 impacts, 89.75%) and the United Kingdom in third (708 impacts, 88.50%).

Namibia finished just behind Canada (673 impacts, 84.12%) and ahead of Denmark (653 impacts, 81.62%).

Strong individual results

Despite the team’s overall position, NAPRA shooters posted strong individual results across the 20-stage competition, including five top-five finishes and 13 top-10 finishes among the stages documented by the team.

Dirk Sauber was among Namibia’s leading performers, recording a third-place finish in Stage 16, a fourth-place finish in Stage 13, and a fifth-place finish in Stage One. He also placed sixth in Stages Two, Nine, and 18, and eighth in Stage Six.

Francois Marais produced consistent results throughout the championship, finishing fifth in Stage 11, seventh in Stages Five and 17, and ending up 15th overall in the Open Division as Namibia's top individual shooter.

Janus van der Merwe recorded another top-ten stage result by finishing sixth in Stage Three.

Additionally, Michael Barlow placed ninth in Stage Four, while Liebies Liebenberg finished ninth in Stage Seven.

"While we all take our shooting very seriously and came as prepared as possible, the reality is that we treat this as a hobby rather than a job. This has led us to not spend quite as much time in training as we would have liked," said Keiran Mans.

The team is scheduled to return home to Namibia on Thursday.

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