Ken L
ARGUING THE RATIONALE BEHIND WEIGHT LIMIT CHANGE
Rifle design is a compromise. One of the boundaries of the compromise is the weight of the rifle. This can be limited either by the physical ability of the shooter to manage it, or by a rule. If limited by physical ability, the question arises whether larger / stronger / heavier people have an advantage, since they have a greater choice of weight of rifle open to them. In a sport, this is not objectionable of itself. However, it is the ethos of Target Rifle shooting that it should be open to the widest possible range of competitors and on an equal basis. If rifle weight is limited by a rule, then one aspect of the compromise is the same for all, and questions of fairness in regard to that aspect do not arise directly.
The TR Committee of ICFRA have chosen, in a decision at Ottawa in August 2007, to recommend a move from a rule-based limit to the physical capability limit. In doing so it could be claimed that we have changed the basis of the sport, in that physique now plays a greater role in success than it did previously. However, such a claim rests on the propositions that an increase in rifle weight enables an increase in performance, that the existing limit is low enough to deny a competitor the ability to realise performance that is within an insignificant margin of the maximum, and that a small or weak competitor would be unable to make use of additional weight were it permitted.
As Chairman, I wish the Committee to have a clear documented statement of our reasons for changing the weight limit and our understanding of the consequences. Accordingly, I have asked the members of the Committee to participate in a review of the decision. I hope to complete the review and submit the result to the ICFRA Secretariat for approval by Council before the end of February 2008. If, in the process of producing a statement, the Committee conclude that the decision was wrong, we should then have the evidence to support a recommendation to change it. I intend that this statement will, with the approval of ICFRA Council, be made available to all member Associations for publication.
I intend, with the approval of the TR Committee, to publish an outline of our work intermittently as we progress.
Yours
Iain Robertson
I W ROBERTSON
Chairman ICFRA TR Committee