After the resounding success of five editions of the International Online Shooting Championships (IOSC) and a month-long Online Shooting League (OSL), indianshooting.com is back with an even bigger sixth version of IOSC with shooters from 20 countries to take part.
Such has been the response this time that former India shooter and organiser Shimon Sharif had to close the registrations on Monday, almost a week before the event after the cap was reached.
Sharif tweeted, “Due to overwhelming response from around 20 countries, we have closed the registrations for the 6th International Online Shooting Championship (IOSC). We hope to see you in the next edition soon.”
Due to overwhelming response from around 20 countries, we have closed the registrations for the 6th International Online Shooting Championship (IOSC). We hope to see you in the next edition soon. pic.twitter.com/1EVCan23GL
— SHIMON SHARIF (@ShimonSharif) December 10, 2020
The Zoom platform, which is used for IOSC, has a limit of 100 participants, and to accommodate more numbers an addon is needed from the US-based video conferencing app. “We will look at this option for future editions,” said Sharif, but for the time being the organiser has his hands full.
The novelty of the IOSC is each edition has seen a steady increase in representation. The inaugural edition started with shooters from 7 countries and the fifth edition saw shooters from a record 15 countries take part.
Clearly, the IOSC has caught the imagination of shooters from around the world. Taking a clue from Sharif’s innovation of online shooting, many national shooting federations have come up with their own online competitions. This month itself there are three more competitions apart from the IOSC organised by different national federations.
The IOSC is also becoming popular among the stakeholders of the sport. The IOSC is supported by iconic Austrian gun manufacturer Steyr, which has to its credit the maximum Olympic medals, and India’s very own Capapie kits which are used by the best shooters of the world.
Sharif, who has represented India at the ISSF World Cup, said, “The concept has been noted and well appreciated by the shooting fraternity world over.”
The pistol shooters will be in action on Saturday followed by rifle shooters on Sunday. Like in the earlier editions, shooters will participate by logging on to the Zoom platform from their respective locations. Matches on both days will be streamed live on the Facebook page of indianshooting.com from 4 PM IST.
