"It’s pretty cool," said K.C.
after besting a field that included the best shooters in the world — names like Leatham, Jarrett, Miculek,
Vidanes and Koenig. "Man, my gunsmith owes me some money now!"
The much-anticipated three-way duel
between last year’s winner Rob Leatham, three time Steel Challenge
champion Doug Koenig and this year’s Limited champion Todd Jarrett
failed to materialize as all three masters stumbled early in the day.
"It’s the bullets," Jarrett
said as the temperature climbed toward a sweltering 100 degrees.
"They keep going around the targets and not hitting them. Sometimes
over the targets. Or under."
Instead, as the wind-whipped dust piled
up in finely tuned Open blasters, the match was suddenly between Eusebio,
the perfect So-Cal kid in Oakleys, reversed ball cap and baggy shorts,
and the gentlemanly revolver phenom from Louisiana, Jerry Miculek.
Stranger still, Eusebio was shooting a full "race gun" built
by fellow Filipino Johnny Lim, a semi-auto designed for pure speed;
Miculek was using his trademark Smith & Wesson revolver, albeit with
a compensator and red-dot sight.
The battle continued all through the day,
with each man no doubt waiting for the big dogs in the sport to pull
some miracle out of their gun bags and reclaim the top spot. But by the
last stage, the Speed Option, with four 12-inch plates at distances from
8 to 20 yards and an 18x24-inch stop plate at 35 yards, it was clear
that the match was between "the kid" and the "old
guy."
Miculek shot first, stuttering at first,
then delivering three record-setting times for a revolver. His fourth
time would have been considered extremely good for a mere mortal, but
Miculek knew it wouldn’t hold if K.C. delivered the kind of stunning
speeds he’d been reeling out all day.
Eusebio’s first run was par, nothing
special. His second run, though, was a disaster. The gun jammed, and as
the high school student raced to clear the jam, the seconds painfully
ticked away. More than one world-class shooter would have fallen into
pieces after such a disaster. Eusebio calmly reholstered and delivered
two more runs at progressively faster speeds that left all the world
records in shambles. His fifth run — the run that won the match —
was fastest yet…so fast that the veteran members of the super squad
were left shaking their heads and worrying about pension plans.
"My strategy after the jam?"
said K.C. after the match. "I didn’t have one. It was, like, just
go for it. All or nothing, man. All or nothing."
All it was as K.C. walked away with a total time
of 69.22 seconds and the coveted World Speed Shooting
Championship.
