The 18th season of European Handgun Championship took place from 9th till 13th September 2019 in Belehrad. 1089 shooters from 53 countries of the world took part at this competition and here were states as Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Kuwait, Philippines, South Africa, USA and Uruguay.
There was a discussion between the shooters if the countries outside of Europe should take part in the European Championship because they are taking up the slots from European countries. My own personal opinion is that it is very good that these countries are more and more interested in European competitions. I would say that USA or Philippines number one shooters taking part in this competition just add on attractiveness and prestige of European Championship. And on the other side European shooters also take part in championships of Asia, Australia, Pan American games and American Championships. But also I can understand there is a key in IPSC shooting to give away the slots for each country and therefore some countries can feel some sort of injustice.
There were 24 stages and 460 shots waiting for the shooters. The competition took place at the shooting gallery of the special anti – terrorism unit in Belehrad – CAJ. Before the competition some of the less experienced shooters were spreading rumors that this competition is very easy and some of them were even comparing it to level II competitions. I have to oppose ( and I am sure that after the European championship no one thought it was a level II competition) and I say it was full-fledged championship of Europe with everything what a continental competition should have. Target moving from one to another, quick transfers with many stabilizations, strong and weak hand and the most important was that the whole competition was very quick and there were achieved high hit factors. That means any stagnation with wrong stabilization, mistakes with reloading or loading the guns, extra shots on steel targets were seen in big point loosing and with prolonged time.