Lapua sponsored Laulumaa two-gun overall winner at European Benchrest Championships

Lapua sponsored Jari Laulumaa from Finland was crowned the 2-Gun European Champion at the Benchrest European Championships which were hosted at the Houraati shooting range in Finland between July 29th and August 3rd. Italian Alberto Lenzi took silver and Luca Paoni, also from Italy, took bronze. Laulumaa also won the 2-gun Heavy Varmint (HV). The Light Varmint (LV) 2-gun winner was Ralf Wachtelborn from Germany.

“I am very pleased with the outcome this year”, comments Laulumaa. “I was able to achieve three major goals: becoming the European Champion, being accepted into the European Bench Rest Hall of Fame, and reaching my 200^th podium finish.”

The 2024 European Benchrest Championships brought together over 70 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.

Lapua was one of the main sponsors of the event. Each class consists of six rounds in each class, with the first being a practice round. The final score board is based on the shooter’s average group size in millimeters. Competitors compete as individuals and national teams in the same series regardless of age or gender.

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).

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/.