The 18th Balkan Shooting Championship! Zenica, Yugoslavia

Albanian team among the strongest!
Albanian Shooters win three Balkan championship titles.
Margarita Cinga, Balkan champion in the 30+30 pistol competition!

The women’s and men’s pistol teams – also peninsula champions. And 8 runner-ups in 6 events

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The achievements of Albanian shooters of high quality already reserve for this sport in Albania an honorable place in the international arena. Successes have followed one another, and above all, new names of shooters are recorded and enrich the statistical manuals of this sport as champions of the continent and the Balkans, testifying to the unstoppable development of shooting in Albania.

In this march, it must be admitted that Albanian shooters are the vanguard of the entire sport in Albania. For now, we can say that the time has passed when the winners of any European or Balkan title were thought of for a long time, since now they have multiplied and in order not to forget someone you will have to browse many newspapers and search in various archives.

Without exaggerating, we would like to add to this article our opinion that the national teams of small Albania can easily become winners of a place of honor in Balkan or European events. Such is the qualitative level of Albanian shooting that is being proven.

Thus, Albanian shooters have confirmed what was said above, once again these days during the 18th Balkan Championship held in Zenica, Yugoslavia. They managed to wave the Albanian flag three times, accompanied by the sounds of the anthem.

The Albanians added to their shooting fund 2 Balkan Championship team cups, two runner-up cups, a gold medal for the Balkan champion, 6 runner-up cups and a bronze medal for third place in this event.

The credit for this goes to the protagonists and coaches of the national teams: F. Basha, E. Nishica, R. Ndreu, E. Dingu, B. Gjevori, I. Paparisto, who for a month with their work skillfully prepare the shooters towards success.

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Durres shooter Margarita Cinga won the gold medal and the championship title in the 30+30 standard pistol competition, accumulating 582 points. Second in this competition was another Albanian, Diana Mata (17 Nentori), with 576 points.

The example of the female pistol shooters was followed by the male shooters who, on the last day of the competition, were declared Balkan team champions, accumulating 1774 points, after a very strong sporting battle with the well-known shooters of Romania.

The protagonists of the men’s success are: Kristo Robo (Dinamo), Piro Gjika (Partizani) and Gezim Alimehmeti (17 Nentori). But amidst this joy, Kristo and Piro also experienced the satisfaction of winning the silver and bronze medals, with 595 and 592 points respectively. First place went to the Romanian Kornel with 597 points.

Although to a lesser extent, congratulations for the success achieved also deserve the pistol shooters who, with 1707 points collected, made the team composed of M. Delilaj, M. Kosova (of the Dajti club) together with Rexha (Dinamo) climb to second place on the podium of honor and be declared vice-champions of the Balkans.

The same title and the silver medal in this individual competition was won by the Albanian shooter M. Delilaj, who was only one point away from the renowned Yugoslav champion Sekaric, who took first place with 584 points.
The title of Balkan champion was also earned by the young Albanian shooters in the 1×60 precision rifle competition, who collected 1745 points.

Among the Albanian athletes Zh. Arapi (Partizani), H. Haskaj (Luftetari), the best figure was made by the talented shooter, student at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Silvana Domi (17 Nentori), who with 588 points accumulated was declared the Balkan runner-up and deserved the silver medal.

The Young Albanian Shooter, Marjana Mata from the Mata Dinasty

The same title and medal in the men’s competition was also won by the young precision pistol shooter A. Cerina (Student) in the 1×60 competition, where he competed alone as an individual.

Among the winners of the sub-champion titles among Albanian shooters, the unluckiest was the shooter from Vlora, Roland Resuli. At the end of the 1×60 precision rifle competition, the figure of 569 points belonged to three shooters, but for the lowest number of 10s, Roland was given second place. Meanwhile, the team where N. Fani (Tomorri) and A. Damo (17 Nentori) also competed with 1775 points was ranked 4th.

Also, the same position in the classification was occupied by the Albanian precision pistol team in the 1×60 competition, where A. Mustafaj (Studenti), V. Koco (Partizani), Gj. Cuni (Beselidhja) competed, who collected 1623 points, as did the women’s team in the standard 3×60 rifle competition.

As can be seen, between the men’s and women’s pistol competitions, the best results were achieved, naturally making a more dignified appearance.

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Reference: Albanian Newspaper “Sporti Popullor” 1985 (personal collection)

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