Rhodesian Win Pistol Team Event September 1, 1977
Dave Westerhout
Andy Langley
Rhodesia Made It! For the second year in a row the Rhodesian practical pistol shooting team won the world championships, and this time the captain, Dave Westerhout, walked off with the individual gold medal.
After six tense days of shooting with little to separate the leading teams, Rhodesia and the US., official confirmed yesterday that Rhodesia had pipped the U.S. by 41.010 points. South Africa came third followed by Britain, West Germany and Belgium. Westerhout, who was the backbone of the Rhodesian team, not only shot brilliantly to win the individual event by a wide margin, but was responsible for much of the preparatory work for the championships. "Lots of people helped with the mountain of work over the last few weeks," said Westerhout who passed special credit to Andy Langley and Alex du Plessis. "They did many hours of work on the range to the detriment of their shooting."
Asked how he felt about being world champion, Dave said said he could not really believe he had done it. "I'm not sure yet that it actually happened, or whether it is a dream. I was just lucky I guess." Second to Westerhout was Rhodesia's Peter Maunder, 116.403 points behind and third was America's Raul Walters (U.S) a further 41.741 points back. Maunder's efforts was particularly good as, after two mediocre trial shoots he failed to make the Rhodesian Team. "
He shot fantastically well in the Felon shoot and that pulled him up quite a few places," said Westerhout. "But we won because we made less mistakes than the Americans did under pressure. The shooting wasn't that good, it was just that we held on better in the tight spots.
RESULTS Individuals
1 - Westerhout (Rhod) - 1960.433
2 - Maunder (Rhod) - 1844.030
3 - Walters (US) - 1802.289
4 - Nakling (Norway) - 1802.272
5 - Campbell (US) - 1793.337
6 - Chapman (US) - 1778.371
7 - Smith (Rhod) - 1776.675
8 - Usher (US) - 1741.721
9 - Lerch (US) - 1731.898
10 - Knight (US) 1719.523
11 Dalton (US) ;
12 Boniface (Rhod) ;
13 Kirkham (US) ;
14 Langley (Rhod) ;
15 Parker (Rhod) ;
16 Von Sorgenfrei (SA) ;
17 Du Plessis (Rhod) ;
18 Stockbridge (Britain) '
19 Davis (US)
20 Ellingford (SA) ;
21 Gore (SA) ;
22 Hartman (Rhod) ;
23 Pretorius (SA) ;
24 Hill (SA) ;
25 Lacey (Rhod)
Team 1 - Rhodesia - 8776.064
2 - US - 8735.054
3 - South Africa - 7808.542
4 - Great Britain - 7437.616
5 - West Germany - 6941.581
6. - Belgium - 6465.203
DaveDave Westerhout:New Rhodesian Combat Shooting Champion. Combat Pistol Sweep David Westerhout made a clean sweep of all four individual titles in the Rhodesian combat pistol championship in Salisbury last Sunday. Westerhout, who was captain if the Rhodesian team which took the world combat pistol championships in Austria, won the jungle lane, standard exercises, moving target shoot and the grand aggregate to become the national champion.
He was also a member of the SAS team that won both the team event - Rob Johnson, Peter Maunder, Danny Hartman, Andy Langley and Westerhout.
Marlborough Pistol CLub did well to finish second in the team event - Mike Large, Peter Boniface, Nigel Parker, Dick Laban and Berwick Nicol were 27 points behind the SAS and 57 ahead of the the third team,
Cleveland Pistol Club. South African policeman Koert Pretorius was impressive and finished third behind Westerhout and Lionel Smith.
Alex du Plessis made a welcome return to form by coming second in the jungle lane, despite having spent a considerable time over the week-end preparing moving targets and assault courses.
The South African competitors appeared to enjoy the facilities available and the official Rhodesian and South African teams expect to meet for a Test Match in Johannesburg on December 4-5.
The Rhodesians are unlikely to be beaten provided they maintain their present form.
Combat pistol shooting is a fast growing sport in many parts of the world and recently a number of international pistol shooters have shown great interest in the Rhodesian training and coaching methods.