The support bit is important I agree - even though I am too old to compete any more I do remember what it was like to be away from home in the 1970's at an important match praying that the pistol kept going as I could only just afford the pistol I had - the thought of a spare or back-up pistol was not even a distant possibility!

To be fair the Model 65 (and newer Model 80) air pistols never gave me any problems and so I never had any mechanical issues of any sort and with now much more simple designed pistols powered by compressed air it would be fair to expect even more reliability..if only!

If I were competing at National level I would probably feel better using a pistol that had the service and support at the event if it were needed - but many top pistol shooters ( and many that are not) have a spare pistol now that they take as a back-up to reduce this concern.

The advantage of a spare pistol is that it can also be set-up to your own personal preference if it had to be used, whereas a repaired pistol may or may not "feel" the same until it has been tweaked back to yourself again.

That being the case, any make of pistol that works best for you is OK.

I was surprised to see the choice of pistols being used at the Olympics and other international events. We tend to mainly think Steyr and Morini, but I did notice the Pardini and Walthers and others - very interesting.