Vihtavuori Powders dominates at European Benchrest Championships

The 2024 European Benchrest Championships brought together 74 of Europe’s top benchrest shooters from 10 countries to compete in Light Varmint (LV) and Heavy Varmint (HV) classes at 100 and 200 meters. Vihtavuori was a main sponsor for the event that was hosted at the Houraati shooting range in Lohtaja, Finland, between July 29 and August 3.

The event is comprised of a total of six rounds in each class, with the first being a practice round. The final score board per class is based on the shooter’s average group size in millimeters. Competitors compete in the same series regardless of age or gender, as individuals and national teams. The overwhelming majority of the shooters used Vihtavuori powder for their loads. Vihtavuori Sales Manager Erkki Seikkula comments, “It’s great when you get to witness first-hand at a high-level event like this the success and accuracy of our premium product.”

The team win this year went to Italy (Davide de Villa, Luca Paoni, Carmelo Rizzato and Alberto Lenzi). Second place went to team Austria (Wolfgang Voglstätter, Ekkehard Widmann, Andy Atzl, Severin Atzl) and third place to team Finland (Jari Laulumaa, Jonas Petterson, Marko Tanskanen, Jari Raudaskoski). Jari Laulumaa (Finland) was crowned the 2-Gun European Champion, Italian Alberto Lenzi took silver and Luca Paoni, also from Italy, took bronze. Laulumaa also won the 2-gun HV. The LV 2-gun winner was Ralf Wachtelborn (Germany).

The daily individual aggregates were as follows:

100 meters Light Varmint:

1. Jari Laulumaa, Finland – 4.850 mm avg
2. Frédéric Guegan, France – 5.760 mm avg
3. Fabian Wallin, Sweden – 6.050 mm avg

Smallest group: Timo-Heikki Varis, Finland, 3.06 mm

100 meters Heavy Varmint

1. Jonas Pettersson, Finland – 5.686 mm avg
2. Pål Otto Sorensen, Norway – 5.700 mm avg
3. Carlos Pacheco, France – 5.732 mm avg

Smallest group: Jan-Erik Tjernberg, Sweden, 3.01 mm

200 meters Light Varmint:

1. Ralf Wachtelborn, Germany – 11.846 mm avg
2. Borne Gebing, Sweden – 12.648 mm avg
3. Severin Atz, Austria – 12.742 mm avg

Smallest group: Carmelo Rizzato, Italy, 5.88 mm

200 meters Heavy Varmint:

1. Janne Juntunen, Finland – 12.896 mm avg
2. Bo Lindström, Finland – 13.746 mm avg
3. Stefan Karlsson, Sweden – 14.158 mm avg

Smallest group: Borne Gebing, Sweden, 5.77 mm

To read more about the 2024 European Benchrest Championships, visit www.benchrest-europe.com/. Main picture by Janne Juntunen.