While the season is just getting underway in many parts of Germany, IPSC history has already been made in Hungary. With more than 1,700 competitors from 65 nations, the 2026 IPSC European Handgun Championship in Buzsák, Hungary, was the largest handgun match the world federation has ever organized.
Right in the thick of it: Team GECO. Representing Germany were Sascha Back, Patrick Kummer, and Luis Ehrhardt, among others, while some of the best-known names in European IPSC including György Batki from Hungary, Emile Obriot and Cyrielle Vivo from France, Eduardo de Cobos from Spain, and Cecilia Lindberg from Sweden were also in attendance. Rounding out the team were Stefan Rumpler from Austria, Camilla Almici from Italy, Austrian standard-division shooter Kiki Vezzani, and Dylan Keppel from the Netherlands, among others.
Photo above: He is the youngest competitor on Team Geco: Luis Erhardt. Source: Geco
And the results are impressive:
- 8 gold medals
- 1 silver medal
- 1 bronze medal
Four days of competition, temperatures well above 30 degrees, and a field of competitors that was likely stronger than ever before at a European Championship. Anyone competing at the top here isn’t doing it just for fun.
The GECO female shooters put in a particularly strong performance: Cecilia Lindberg secured the European championship title in the Production Optics Lady Division, while Cyrielle Vivo also made it onto the podium, winning bronze. Camilla Almici and Kiki Vezzani also delivered strong results with team titles and podium finishes.
In the men’s competition, György Batki made another strong statement. The Hungarian successfully defended his European championship title in the Classic Senior Division and also finished fourth in the overall standings of the Classic Division—no small feat in a field of this magnitude.
Photo above: He won gold with the German team in the Open Seniors division: Sascha Back. Source: Geco
The European Championship was also a success for Sascha Back, who won gold in the Open Senior Team event alongside the German team. Emile Obriot was among the event’s big winners as well, securing the overall victory in the Production Optics Division and the team title with Team France.
Beyond the results, the European Championships demonstrated above all just how big IPSC has become. 1,700 competitors, hundreds of volunteers, multiple days of competition, and an infrastructure more reminiscent of major international events than traditional shooting sports competitions.
And that is likely the real news coming out of Buzsák: dynamic shooting sports continue to grow—rapidly, internationally, and at a level that would have been almost unimaginable just a few years ago.
Photos: Geco
