Namibian accuracy proven at world-class level

Loud cheering greeted the Namibian team as they were called up to receive their silver medals – beaten only by reigning champions and hosts USA – as the 2024 International Precision Rifle Federation World Championships concluded with its award ceremony in Grand Junction, Colorado, on Tuesday.

Namibia’s second-place finish in the Open Division team competition was a remarkable rise following their debut performance (seventh) at the previous world championship in France two years ago.

In their individual competition, three Namibian team members finished in top-ten positions. A rain shower cut short the final day’s shoot-outs for finishing position, featuring Dirk Sauber (Namibia) v Michael Wilkie (Australia) for 5th/6th place; Francois Marais Junior (Namibia) v Luke McKennie (Australia for 7th/8th place, as well as Keiran Mans (Namibia) v Jeff Guerry (USA) for 9th/10 position – out of a total of 105 individuals at the world championship.

Sauber, Marais and Mans’ team mates were Michael Barlow, Janus van der Merwe and Liebies Liebenberg. Their team total of 636 points finished only behind the formidable USA team (680), beating bronze medallists Australia (624), Norway (614), Great Britain (602), New Zealand (600), Sweden (591), South Africa (583), Ireland (575) and Canada (555) as the rest of the top-ten.