The excellent marksman

The king of competitive shooting, Lars L. Ese

This monument was raised in honour of Lars L. Ese, one of the greatest competitive target shooters in Norwegian history.

Lars was born in Indre Ese-Balestrand in 1922 and during his short life he clamed the title “skyttarkonge” four times. This has not been repeated since. Lars started target shooting in 1937, 15 years old.

After the war, competitive shooting saw an increased interest. Lars joined his first competition in Bergen in 1947, and brought home the “Kings Trophy”. He repeated this in Bardufoss in 1951, in Sandnes in 1954 and 1955 at Kongsvinger.

In almost every national competition he won or came close to winning. He also participated in Britains “Brittania Shield Competition”, a competition for every allied country who had forces in England during the war. Norway won four years in a row, with Lars as the best individual competitor- every time.

He was awarded the gold medal of Morgenbladet and got The honorary award of Bergen Municipality. In 1966 Lars was made the design feature on the medals provided to the winning athletes and his wife, Kari Ese, handed out the medals to the winning teams.

At the national competition “Landskyttarstemnet” the Ese-medal is still in use and highly revered.

Lars L. Ese died in 1960 leaving behind an impressive and memorable legacy.