2019 - Selection of the best athletes, teams and sporting achievements

26.02.2019

Shooting Federation awards: for the best female and male shooters

Strelka: LIVING DOORSHAKE, SD Olimpija

Živa Dvoršak, a two-time Olympian and member of the Olimpija Shooting Club, won her sixth Best Shooter of the Year title.This is the tenth prestigious Best Shooter of the Year title for her, with four consecutive laurels in the junior competition. Živa's greatest successes in 2019 came at World Cup competitions, when she qualified for the finals with a small calibre rifle at 50m in the triple position in New Delhi, India, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, finishing in 5th and 7th place respectively. Her two successful performances also earned her her first career appearance at the World Cup Finals in Putian, China, where she achieved the best qualifying score of 1172 rounds, before finishing in 6th place in the final. Although these successes have not yet earned Ziva the desired Olympic quota for her third Olympic appearance in 2019, she is currently the 8th highest ranked shooter in the world rankings and is very close to achieving her main goal of qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Sagittarius: BOŠTJAN MAČEK, SD Trap Štefan Kovač Murska Sobota

The flattering laurel of the best shooter of 2019 was won for the fourth time by the trap shotgun shooter, two-time Olympian Boštjan Maček, a member of SD Trap Štefan Kovač Murska Sobota. After winning the European title in 2018, Boštjan showed his best shooting in 2019 at the World Cup competitions in Acapulco, Mexico, Al-Ain, Emirates and Changwon, South Korea, where he scored three high scores with 121 targets out of 125 hit and ranked 25th in the world.He was also successful at the World Championships in Lonato, Italy, where he was the best Slovenian with 27th place. He and his sister Jasmin Maček also set a new national qualification record in the mixed pairs trap in Mexico. Boštjan will try to secure his third Olympic Games appearance at the European Championships in France in less than six months.

Youth: ANJA PREZELJ, SD Lotrič Železniki

The flattering title of the best junior of 2019 was won for the second time in a row by young Olympian Anja Prezelj, a member of the Shooting Club Lotrič Železniki. The best performance of the year was achieved by the golden graduate Anja at the European Championships in Osijek, when she took 19th place with the air pistol on 10m and with a score of 560 rounds was only four rounds behind the finalists. Her excellent shooting in 2019 was also confirmed at a number of international competitions, where she was predominantly the best Slovenian shooter and improved her qualification national records from one match to the next, both in the junior and absolute member competitions. At the end of the season, Anja had collected eleven such records, both in the individual and team competition.

Junior: RENE MAČEK, SD Trap Štefan Kovač Murska Sobota

The flattering title of the best junior of 2019 was won for the first time by Rene Maček, a trap shotgun shooter and member of SD Trap Štefan Kovač Murska Sobota. Rene won his second such award after winning the Cadet Best Shooter title in 2017. The greatest success in his young 5-year shooting career was achieved at the Junior World Championships in Lonato, Italy, where he qualified for the finals with a great performance in the qualification round with 118 hits, and then continued with his excellent target scoring in the finals and won the first ever bronze medal for Slovenia at the Junior World Championships. Rene thus achieved the 40th Slovenian shooting medal in Slovenia's history at the biggest competitions (Olympic Games, World Shooting Championships and European Championships) and the 60th Slovenian shooting medal in the whole history of Slovenian shooting.

Rene's second big success at the World Championships in Lonato came in the team competition, where he and his teammates finished in a record 4th place, the best Slovenian junior team result at the World Championships to date, and Rene just missed out on another big medal. The team also set a new national team qualification record with 339 flying targets hit at the World Championships.

Cadet: PIA SRPČIČ, SK Brežice

Pia Srpčić, a member of the Brežice Shooting Club, won the Best Cadet of 2019 award for the first time. Pia's biggest success of the season came at the National Air Pistol Championships, where she became the Cadet National Champion. She added to her success with small calibre pistol at 25m and won her second medal at the 2019 World Championships with silver. She won the league title in the National Cadet League, while setting two more team national records with both club and national team shooters.

Cadet: LUKA LUKIĆ, SD Trzin

The best cadet of 2019 was won for the first time by Luka Lukić, a member of the Trzin Shooting Club. Luka's greatest success came at the European Championships in Osijek, where he showed excellent shooting with the air rifle on 10m and with 621.4 rounds he came in 14th place, just 1.3 rounds short of qualifying for the finals. At the National Championships in Mengeš, Luka became the Cadet National Champion, and with five wins and one second place he was also the top scorer in the overall National Cadet League standings. His excellent season was confirmed by two more national records, in the individual and team competition.

Pioneer: ZOJA KALIN, SD Dušan Poženel Rečica pri Laškem

Zoja Kalin, a member of the shooting club Dušan Poženel Rečica pri Laškem, won her second title of the best pioneer of 2019. Zoja continues to win awards at the National Championships, as after two individual and two team awards in 2018, in 2019 she took the triple crown and became the national champion with the serial air rifle, the national champion with the serial small calibre rifle 50m in the prone position and the national champion with the serial small calibre rifle 50m in the triple position. To her three individual gold medals, she added the title of National Team Champion in small calibre rifle in both disciplines and National Team Champion in serial air rifle. She was also very successful in the National Pioneer League, where in an extremely close battle for the top spot, she won the overall league title for 2019 with two wins and two third places.

Pioneer: NINO BENJAMIN KOVAČEC, SD Kovinar Ormož

The first title of the best pioneer of 2019 went to Nino Benjamin Kovačec, a member of the Kovinar Ormož Shooting Club. His greatest success came at the National Championships in Mengeš, when he won the title of National Champion with a 10m air rifle. He also achieved great success in the National Pioneer League with the serial air rifle, where he won three tournaments and won the title of League Champion in 2019. Nino Benjamin concluded an exceptionally successful season at the National Championship with the serial small calibre rifle at 50m and won two more National titles in both the prone and triple position.

Award for the best association in 2019:

The Association: Shooting Association DUŠAN POŽENEL REČICA PRI LAŠKEM

The title of the Best Shooting Association of the Year was awarded to the Dušan Poženel Shooting Association Rečica pri Laškem for the twelfth time in a row. The Rečica shooters first won this title in 1998 and reigned on top for eight consecutive years, until 2005. The Rečica Rifle Association has experienced some important milestones in its 68 years of activity this year. In November, the Association handed over its renovated shooting range, which now offers the possibility to train on the 12-place air rifle range, the 12-place 25m range and the 12-place 50m range, more than doubling the capacity of the shooting range. The successful work of the association over the years is reflected in the good, often record-breaking, achievements of the Rečica shooters and the numerous awards won at the annual Best Shooter Awards. The biggest successes on the international arena have been recorded by the Rečica Association with the high rankings of its young shooter Jože Čepr at the biggest shooting competitions such as the European and World Championships, and the latest in a series of great successes is Jože's victory at the European Pistol Cup Finals at 25m in October in France. With a modernised shooting range, as desired by many shooting centres in Slovenia, competent professional staff and a large shooting sub-team, the Shooting Association Dušan Poženel Rečica pri Laškem is paving the way to a successful shooting future.

Sports Achievement Awards:

Bronze plaque:

Silver plaque:

Gold plaque:

In the 2018/19 shooting season, 82 national records were set (11 of which were tied).

The Slovenian national team set 10 national records (including 1 tie) in the team classification:

• for DRC members, mixed pairs in trap (Jasmina Maček, Boštjan Maček) s 144 Targets
• for EDR members with rifle 50 m prone (Rajmond Debevec, Robert Markoja, Jakob Petelinek) s 1868,1 Circle
• for EDR members with rifle 300 m prone (Rajmond Debevec, Robert Markoja, Dušan Ziško) s 1787 circles
• for IEDR members with rifle 300 m prone (Rajmond Debevec, Robert Markoja, Dušan Ziško) s 1781 circles
• for EDR members with standard rifle 300 m triple position (Robert Markoja, Rajmond Debevec, Dušan Ziško) s 1732 circles
• for EDR members with rifle 50 m triple position (Živa Dvoršak, Urška Kuharič, Klavdija Jerovšek) s 3471 circles
• for EDR juniors with air rifle 10 m (Nejc Klopčič, Luka Lukić, Jure Sočič) s 1851,3 Circle
• for EDR juniors in trap (Rene Maček, Sašo Hrovat, Žiga Juretič) s 339 Targets
• for EDR junior female 10 m air pistol (Anja Prezelj, Sara Ščuri, Pia Srpčič) s 1666 circles
• for EDR junior women 50 m rifle triple position (Katarina Fevžer, Ana Nuša Detela, Olja Kolenc) s 3393 circles

• 2019 Scorer of the Year Statistics