LAANG is set to awaken with a bang next week.More than 600 shooters are descending on the quiet, rural locality for the prestigious world sporting clay target shooting championships. It is the third time Australia has hosted the event.Championship winners Ben Husthwaite and George Digweed are poised to set the benchmark for the competition. The British pair has won a swag of global titles, including a combined 11 World cups.Mal Price, from the Warrnambool branch of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA), said it was a coup to secure Hutshwaite and Digweed."They are very successful shooters. Digweed has won the World Cup 10 times while Hutshwaite has won it once," Price said.The event, which starts on Tuesday, has attracted a full field of 672 competitors, 300 of who are international. A total of 26 countries will be represented at the championships. The first three days will be practice shoots, followed by four days of competition.Competitors must shoot 50 targets a day. Laang secured the championships after hosting the Field and Game Federation of Australia's national carnival in 2006.The event attracted more than 320 competitors, which Price said gave a vote of confidence to the Laang range."They (world championship organisers) were impressed with our capabilities and the fact that we provided suitable targets of world quality."Australians Damien Birgan and John Younger are set to be the pick of domestic competitors. But Price said the south-west should fare well.He said Geelong's Ray McFarlane and Blake Nankervis were in the mix."Ray was second in the worlds at Cyprus last year and Blake, who's a junior, has a wonderful opportunity to take out a major place.I suppose anything can happen really."The championships include an opening ceremony on Tuesday at Warrnambool's Civic Green after competitors march through the streets.Price expects more than 1000 people to attend the seven-day competition. "By the time you include family, friends and spouses it easily gets over that."Price said range preparation was 95 per cent complete. The Warrnambool SSAA branch is hoping the event will have economic spin-offs for the south-west region. It spent $15,000 promoting the region to international competitors. "We just didn't want to showcase our range but what the rest of the region had to offer," Price said. The championships end on November 22.