KLEIDUIS SHOP – As a talented cyclist, he rode the peloton with Joop Zoetemelk and Hennie Kuiper decades ago. But physical setbacks prevented Franke from breaking through in professional cycling. But with his gun he knows how to storm the world top.
Last weekend the European Kleiduif shooting championships were in Most, Czech, where Franke came out in the Masters category, for shooters of 72 years or older. And it didn’t go easy. “The title did not come to me,” says Franke. The championship took place in four days, but halfway the title seemed out of sight. “I could hardly connect with the top on those first two days.”
But on day three, the Drenthe Kleiduifschieter got the taste. “I shot two very important rounds and rose to three.” Franke continued to perform on the final day, while his competitors collapsed. “On the last day I shot 45 out of 50 discs. I came in the last and everyone asked what I had shot. The score of 45 turned out to be happy enough.”
For Franke this was already his third European title and he also became world champion. An important condition for continuing to perform at this age is discipline. “I am still a few hundred kilometers on the racing bike every week. Four years ago I was struck by a heavy brain haemorrhage, but I almost returned 100 percent. I have had a lot of luck.”
Not only as a shooter itself you have to be disciplined, but in a sport in which everyone walks around with guns, social control is very important. “Every form of aggression is punished hard. That is why it is actually a very pleasant sport, but the battle for the stage is huge.”
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