European F-Class Championship Side Quest: How Mari Morita Went from Behind the Booth to Behind the Rifle

Three weeks traveling around the UK. Already filmed the Rimfire World Championship (read about it here) and finishing my trip shooting photos and video at the European F-Class Championships. Of course I was excited, F-Class Open is my chosen discipline. Having spent time with Team USA at Southwest Nationals and being friends with several competitors, it was a great way to wrap up the trip and watch the best of the best go to work. But this isn’t about that event. If you do want to read about the  European F-Class Championships, you can find that article here.

This is about a side quest I stumbled onto. An interesting story I came across after being at the range for maybe an hour.

“Did you hear Mari shot yesterday in the team match, and killed it?” If you’ve been around F-Class, you’ve probably met Mari Morita. She’s everywhere in the sport. Not a competitor, but no slouch behind a rifle either. So hearing she not only competed but did it in the team match? That caught my attention. This is the story of how that came together, from the accounts of Mari Morita and Gary Costello, F-Class World Champion and the man who handed her the rifle.

Who is Mari Morita

Mari earned a law degree in constitutional law, motivated by the idea of helping people improve their lives. But after graduating, she realized real change often happens through opportunity, not legislation. That led her into business development and education, helping people build careers and skills. That same mindset guided her into the shooting industry. When she joined DEON Optical Design, the company behind March Scopes, she wanted to bridge the gap between shooters and engineers. She saw her role as both advocate and observer, someone who could give meaningful feedback because she understood what shooters experienced firsthand. That philosophy turned her into a familiar face at ranges worldwide, constantly listening, learning, and connecting with competitors. But long before she was walking the F-Class line, she’d already built a foundation for precision.

The ISSF Foundation

Before long-range shooting entered the picture, Mari trained under ISSF Olympic-style air rifle and big bore rifle rules. ISSF is a sport built on control and precision. There’s no wind coaching, no spotter, just one shooter and one rifle. Every motion, every breath, and every heartbeat must be deliberate. That experience shaped how she shoots today. She learned that the battle isn’t with recoil or conditions but with yourself, staying calm, consistent, and exact. It’s where she learned body alignment, trigger control, and the kind of patience that translates to any rifle platform. That discipline would prove crucial later.

The Call to Bisley

By 2025, Mari had spent several years traveling with March, helping shooters and working events around the world. Gary Costello, F‑Class World Champion and Managing Director of March Scopes Europe, had invited her to the European Championships more than once. After years of politely saying no, she finally decided to make the trip. Her plan was simple: support shooters, work the booth, and take in the match from behind the line. Stickledown Range at the National Shooting Centre in Bisley is one of the sport’s crown jewels. It stretches from 800 to 1,200 yards and demands absolute precision in reading conditions. Even the most decorated shooters can get caught out there. Mari arrived expecting to work, not to shoot.

Then Gary handed her a rifle. It was a Speedy‑built 7 RSAUM, launching 184 Berger Hybrids at roughly 2,900 fps through a 7mm 5‑groove Benchmark barrel with an 8.5 twist. The action was a heavily modified BRMXD, the first concept of what became the Borden Black Knight, a design Gary and Speedy had worked on together. It sat in an A/S Rifles stock with a Z‑rail, topped with a March Majesta 8-80x56, a rifle that had served Gary well for years and, as expected, served Mari just as well during the midweek individual matches.

This was her first time shooting F‑Open, and she had no expectation of being anywhere near the top let alone as part of the team match. But her individual performance changed that. Her Grand Aggregate score placed her 24th overall, out of 152 of the best shooters in the world.

24th Place – Mari Morita (JPN, F‑Open) Tues M1 – 99.08 | Tues M2 – 72.05 | Tues Agg – 171.13 | Wed M1 – 93.10 | Wed M2 – 63.03 | Wed Agg – 156.13 | Thurs M1 – 91.04 | Sidhe Agg – 418.30

This wasn’t an average field. The European Championships serve as preparation for the upcoming 2026 F‑Class World Championships, drawing the strongest shooters from around the globe; people competing with their best rifles, their best loads, and their sharpest form. Against that lineup, Mari’s 24th‑place finish was extraordinary. She’d never even shot an F‑Open rifle before that week.

Maybe her success had something to do with shooting a world‑champion’s rifle, or having world‑class ammunition tuned by one of the best. But it would be a mistake to discount the shooter behind it. Her time in ISSF , and the discipline it built, clearly carried through. Add to that her deep technical understanding of March optics, likely unmatched outside the factory, and it starts to make sense. She combined precision, patience, and product insight in a way few could. Whatever the reason, that result turned heads. Her consistency caught attention, and it was quickly decided she’d earned a spot on Team March for the team match. Her time behind rifles had clearly translated and the team took notice.

The Team Match

Team March was a tight group of seasoned British F-Class shooters, most of them long-time March users who knew Stickledown’s quirks well. The match ran across two stages at 900 and 1000 yards with four shooters per team and seventy-five minutes on the clock. Each shooter fired two sighters followed by fifteen record shots while wind coaches rotated shooters and managed calls. It’s a format that leaves little room for error and demands perfect coordination between shooter and coach.

Mari never expected to be part of it. She came to observe and lend support, not to compete. When they asked if she would shoot, she admitted she didn’t even know how the rotation worked. But she listened, absorbed every bit of direction, and approached it with the same calm discipline she had learned in ISSF. Waiting for ten minutes at a time for the right condition didn’t shake her. She stayed steady, breathing through the wait, breaking clean shots exactly when told. By the time they reached 1000 yards, her rhythm matched the coaches and her groups had tightened up. When the firing stopped, no one knew where they stood. The scores weren’t announced until the midweek ceremony, where Team March learned they had taken second place, only two points behind Australia. It was Mari’s first F-Open match and her first team event, and she had just helped secure a silver medal at one of the sport’s most competitive stages.

Gary explained later that Mari had been chosen over other possible team members because of how strong her individual performance had been. The rifle was running perfectly, and she handled the pressure with composure, following every wind call and waiting patiently for the right moment. Their coach, Tom, adjusted windage, a method common in the UK, and the team executed smoothly. The conditions were tricky, but the result spoke for itself.

For Mari, it wasn’t only about medals or placement. The match gave her a true understanding of what shooters need from their equipment, tracking precision, point of aim stability, and confidence when it counts. Most of the team ran Majestas, and now she understood exactly why. When it was over, she went back to the March booth, talking with shooters and answering questions, but her perspective had changed. She wasn’t describing performance from behind the counter anymore. She had lived it. She came to Bisley as a company representative and left as one of the top twenty-five shooters in her first-ever F-Open outing.

Closing Thoughts

No first-place wins. No dramatic comeback. A 24th-place individual finish and a second-place team result. On paper, it sounds ordinary, but in context, it’s anything but. I know the people around March, I work with them and I run a March Majesta 8-80x56 myself, so stumbling onto this story felt like finding something special. What caught my attention wasn’t just the scores but what they represented. It was the spirit of the sport itself.

A newcomer stepping into one of the toughest competitions in the world and performing at that level is remarkable. A world champion lending his rifle, ammunition, and trust. A team standing together and competing with calm professionalism. And not just competing at any match, this was one of the most demanding environments you’ll find in shooting. The European Championships bring pressure that only the best can handle. The level of talent is world class, and Bisley is known for its shifting, unpredictable conditions that test even the most seasoned shooters.

Oh, and did I mention the storm? Gale-force winds, tents ripped from the ground, equipment destroyed, and shooters still holding their own through it all. Watching everyone fight the conditions and still manage to deliver was inspiring. You don’t forget that kind of determination.

People often describe F-Class as the Formula 1 of shooting. So imagine putting a new driver behind the wheel of an F1 car and having them not crash, not stall out, but actually finish near the front of the pack. You’d call that a win in its own right. That’s what this was. For anyone new to shooting, stories like this matter. This community is open, supportive, and filled with people willing to help you rise faster than you might think possible. You may not take first, but the real joy is in being part of the race. That’s why I wanted to tell it. Because sometimes the most meaningful victories aren’t about being number one, they’re about showing up, taking the shot, and belonging to something bigger than yourself.

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