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Section of Blind and WeakSight sportsmen of Slovakia |
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First World IBSA Championship in Shooting for the Blind and Partially Sighted
Slovakia, Košice, July 30 - August 4, 2002 |
Michel Romanet and Štefan Kopčík
ECh IBSA 2001, Valence(F) |
Dear Friends of Sport,
The First World Championships IBSA in Shooting for the Blind and Visually Impaired will be held in Slovakia - in the city of Kosice, which is the second largest city in the Slovak Republic.
Kosice is a business and cultural center which offers many opportunities for sports. Its many visitors can admire the city's beautiful center with historical sites, theater and music foutain.
Thanks to IBSA's decision to hold this year's Championships in Kosice, we have the pleasure of inviting you to come to the heart of Europe to participate at the First World Championships IBSA in Shooting.
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A Call to Heads of IBSA Member Organizations |
| Support the development of the sport of shooting for the blind and visually impaired by facilitating the participation of at least one of your experienced visually challenged shooters or a talented youth at the World Championships IBSA 2002 in Kosice, or send at least one observer who will be able to work towards developing the sport of shooting in your country. As the organizers of this event we are able to offer an incentive to countries that are new to this discipline: a youth shooter (man or woman who is at most 18 years of age) with a guide, or one observer from each country will receive a 50% discount on the participation fee. |
| I am very sad that my friend Michel Romanet will not join us at these First World Championships IBSA in Shooting. He rejoiced when we, as substitutes, took on the task of organizing this event in Slovakia. He was looking forward to another visit of this "small but beautiful country in the heart of Europe." |
| Michel Romanet was a magnanimous person who liked to share his experience in shooting with others. He helped both countries and individuals in developing the discipline of shooting. I am myself one of these visually impaired individuals who returned to shooting thanks to Michel. I was very saddened to find out that the 16th of March, the day on which I placed third in alpine skiing at the Paralympic Games, was the same day that Michel succumbed to a serious illness and left his family and us, his colleagues and friends. Symbolically, my medal belongs to Michel. It will be very difficult to make up for the endeavors and pursuits of this important person. |
| To date, six countries made an initial application to send their sports representatives to the World Championships. In addition, one country signed up to send an observer. By this, they laid the foundation for this event. These countries are France with two men, two women and two assistants, Sweden with one man and one assistant, Austria with one man, two women and two assistants, the Czech Republic with two men, one woman and two assistants, Spain with six shooters (gender not specified), six assistants and three other participants, Slovakia with four men, one woman, five assistants and two other participants, and Great Britain with one observer. |
| So far, we have not heard from countries that had previously expressed interest in developing the sport of shooting such as Brazil and several African countries, but also the U.S. and Canada. We also sincerely hope that there will also be interest in participation at this event and in developing this sport among countries that have the means to do so and that, above all, also have excellent visually challenged shooters such as, for instance, Michael Schluter and Adrian Schmitz from Germany, or Torben Frederiksen from Denmark. There are also other exceptional shooters that I know from biathlon such as Wilhem Brem and Verena Ventele from Germany, Valesi Cheloudkov from Russia, Anne-Mette Brehadl from Denmark, Miyuki Kobayashi from Japan, Tone Gravvold from Norway, and others. We look forward to receiving their applications. |
| Please mail your binding applications with 80% of the participation fees by June 30, 2002 at the latest. |
| I am looking forward to seeing you at the Championships! | |
| With warm regards, |
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Ing. Stefan Kopcik |
| Chairman of Organizing Committee |
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