He already has multiple medals but he is never satisfied. Guy Cozzoli has just won a gold medal in Verona, during the 3rd Italian Grand Prix for archery with ancient weapons.
“As long as I have fun, I will continue”. At 78, Guy Cozzoli is not ready to give up. This Audois never stops collecting charms, 78 to his credit, like his age. With old weapons now, the Villaliérois has more than thirty years of competitions behind him. His history with arms dates from his military service, which he performed at the 8th Rpima de Castres, with which he participated at the time in the French military championship. His professional activity in many European and African countries kept him away from his native department. A parenthesis of about fifteen years, a position at the Salsigne mine and its banker who introduced him to the Carcassonnaise de tir, the Pont-Rouge club. “He introduced me to handguns and I was immediately won over,” explains Guy. From then on, the new licensee chained sports shooting at 10 m indoors (indoor) and at 50 m outdoors in the summer. 20 years ago, through the advice of the president of the Lézignan club, the Carcassonne member happily tried his hand at old weapons. This was a good thing because this discipline has no age category, competitors can practice their sport until advanced ages. World colt champion in 2008 in Adelaide, Australia, gold medal with the French team in Hungary in 2019, three times individual French champion, these are some of the feats of arms of our septuagenarian. The weight of the years having no hold on him, at the end of May he obtained a gold medal at the 3rd Italian Grand Prix which took place south of Verona. More than 200 European shooters had been selected there.
Sports shooting is booming. After each Olympic Games, this discipline provider of tricolor medals, many young and old take a license with the French Shooting Federation. From 149,000 10 years ago, there are now 245,000. However, member of the steering committee of the Carcassonnaise de tir, which has 500 licensees, Guy Cozzoli is sorry: “Our facilities in the Pont-Rouge area have become too cramped. Several requests have been made to the municipality, in vain. The promises of the town hall have not been kept”. Thus, he himself is forced to practice training at home using dry firing (without a bullet) in order to ensure the basic work necessary for performance, to which must be added, as he specifies, calm, motivation and unfailing morale.
six disciplines
The six disciplines of shooting with ancient weapons: Kurchenreuter, pistol of German origin manufactured between 1782 and 1864.Cominazzo, Italian single-shot pistol, smooth barrel, flintlock.Colt, famous American revolver created during the Civil War. Mariette, pistol produced in 1837 by a Belgian shipowner. Donald Maison, percussion revolver, specialized for firing at 50 m. Tanzutsu, matchlock pistol of Japanese origin dating from the 17th century for the oldest.
–
–
