INTERNATIONAL MATCH CROSSBOW-SHOOTING NEWS

HOLLAND IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK...

For a few hours on Saturday afternoon August 22, a sports field in OUDEMOLEN, Holland was the centre of the international crossbow sport. That was when Frans Fakkers, the IAU’s Vice President presented a demonstration of the Netherlands Crossbow Union’s new MOBILE MATCH-CROSSBOW RANGE INSTALLATION to the members of the IAU Executive Committee. (Photo credit:IAU /Méchin).

The IAU Executive board members were in Holland for their second meeting of the year in Roosendaal, the venue being chosen to enable President Gérard Boutteville to see the new equipment in action. Frans Fakkers declared that the NKB’s target track system was “unique in the world” and is the product of years of talking, drawing and calculating by the Dutch union. The team responsible for the design and development work are Dick Schouten, Kees de Kock, Jan Corneli , Jan Buijs and for the set up for the motors Stan van Eekelen. Their brief was to design a “user friendly” mobile automated crossbow target system to replace existing equipment - the cost and availability of which has been holding back the development of the sport both nationally in Holland (10 and 20 meters traditional) and for the IAU’s 10 and 30m disciplines internationally.

Frans Fakkers explained that conventional match-crossbow targets run on highly –tensioned cables. This requires a very expensive and heavy range installation that takes a lot of time and effort to build. The new NKB system runs on a track and is easy to set-up with minimal labour, and is easy to transport from place to place. It is also a much “greener” solution because it requires less powerful single-phase electric motors to run the shooting range, saving on cost and the  overall weight of the system.

Watching the system in action were IAU President Gérard Boutteville, Secretary General Charles Méchin, Match TC Chairman Christian Hunzinger and Pavel Kaszonyi, Field TC Chairman. Also present were invited guests DSB Crossbow Referent Edwin Hirte and his colleague Steffen Wolfering. The French match-crossbow champion Pascal Schueller was there to assist with the test and to offer technical advice. Running on box-section aluminium track and hi-tech roller wheels, the targets “swished” back and forth on the range almost silently. Frans Fakkers explained that the equipment is suitable for 10, 20 and 30 metre distances and so will be used for the Dutch national disciplines, as well as for IAU match events.

French champion Pascal Schueller tested to operation of the range, looking to see what needed to be done to adapt in to the kneeling position. Once work is completed on the shooting stand, the NKB will be announcing their terms for renting the system to foreign organisations in consultation with IAU.

After the demonstration IAU President Gérard Boutteville said “The Netherlands Crossbow Union are doing a great job for crossbow-shooting – and for the IAU it will be a big step forward for us. We congratulate Frans Fakkers and his team”.

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Chris Aston, IAU Web Editor

+44 1902 758870 Phone

+44 1902 560007 Fax

christopheraston@blueyonder.co.uk