MILAN, Italy — The best of the best in Olympic precision shooting met in Milan, Italy for the International Shooting Sport Federation’s (ISSF) World Cup Finals, Oct. 7-12. The World Cup Final is the highlight of each World Cup season, however, only the best eight shooters in each event can qualify to compete, leaving a lot of the competitive U.S. Shooters at home.
The U.S. Rifle Team saw the only significant amount of success with Eric Uptagrafft (Longmont, Colo.) clinching the bronze medal in the Men’s 50m Rifle Prone event. He finished his World Cup season with a 698.2 total score, less than a point away from first place. Torben Grimmel, from Denmark, sat atop of the medal stand with a 699.0, while Artem Khadjibekov, of Russia, sat in second with just 4/10 of a lead on Uptagrafft.
Matthew Emmons (Browns Mills, N.J.) walked away with a fifth-place finish in that same event, finishing with a 696.4. He took home another fifth-place finish in Men’s 50m 3-Position, falling from third place after the qualification rounds to fifth with a finals score of 98.7 and a total 1,260.7.
World-record holder Jason Parker (Cusseta, Ga.) also fell in the finals. Parker shot a score of 100.2 in the final round, dropping him from third to seventh. The 10m Air competition was fierce, with finals as high as 104.3 shot by Russian Konstantin Prikhodtchenko, who finished in sixth. Peter Sidi, of Hungary, took the gold with a final of 103.7 and a total of 700.7, two points above that of his next opponent.
Jamie Beyerle (Lebanon, Pa.) was the only female to qualify from the U.S. in any precision sport. She stuck with the pack in the Women’s 50m 3-Position, but couldn’t get above sixth place in the qualification rounds or finals. Instead, it was won by Lioubov Galkina, of Russia, with a 686.3 and a margin of just over 10 points. Sonja Pfeilschifter, of Germany, fell into second-place with a 675.9, while Olena Davydova, of Ukraine, rounded out the top-three with a 675.1. Beyerle held on with a 671.2 total score.
The only other U.S. Team member was Running Target’s Adam Saathoff (Seirra Vista, Ariz.), who finished in seventh, just out of reach for the finals.
Look for full results at www.usashooting.org, by clicking on the ISSF link. Also watch for results from Shotgun’s World Cup Final, Oct. 13-19.
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