USA Shooting Hosts ISSF WC Rifle/Pistol in Fort Benning

[USA Shooting]

USA Shooting Hosts ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol in Fort Benning
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (May 3, 2018)
USA Shooting will welcome 53 nations and more than 350 athletes to the home of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit in Fort Benning, Georgia next week when the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup for Rifle/Pistol kicks off on Monday.

Thirty USA Shooting athletes will compete across the 10 Olympic Rifle and Pistol events for medals or Minimum Qualifying Scores (MQS, required for Olympic competition). The first medals of this World Cup will be awarded in Women’s Air Rifle and Mindy Miles (Weatherford, Texas) will be looking for redemption for her performance at the previous World Cup stage just two weeks earlier in Changwon, South Korea where she shot a world-class score of 627.3, but found herself .7-point shy of a potential Finals berth.

Also look for strong performances from the men in Three-Position Rifle – both from our U.S. men and internationally. Three-time Olympic medalist Matt Emmons (Browns Mills, New Jersey) shot an exceptional world-class Qualification score of 1177 in Changwon, which put him in seventh place entering the Final. Emmons finished just off the podium in South Korea in fourth place. His two-time Olympic teammate and former Prone Rifle specialist Michael McPhail (U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit/Darlington, Wisconsin) has proven the transition to a full-time Three-Position Rifle shooter has been going well as he also posted a solid 1170 in Qualification in South Korea and this time he’ll be competing on his home range for this World Cup.

On the Pistol side, two athletes narrowly missed out on potential Finals berths in their respective events in South Korea and will look to crack the top eight for a chance at a medal. Alexis Lagan (Boulder City, Nevada) shot a world-class 573 in Women’s Air Pistol, but found herself two-points shy of the Finals, just as 2008 Olympian Brenda Silva (Snowflake, Arizona) did in Women’s Sport Pistol where she shot a 580.

The U.S. team will also have a youthful energy as seven Junior athletes fresh off National Junior Olympic Shooting Championship (NJOSC) victories will also take to the firing line at this match, testing themselves against their Open-level (adult) international competitors. During NJOSC, Logan Ogden (Galway, New York) was posting world-class Junior scores in Men’s Air Rifle, as were Katelyn Abeln (Douglasville, Georgia) in Women’s Sport Pistol and Sarah Choe (Los Angeles, California) in Women’s Air Pistol.

These athletes and most of the U.S. competitors at this World Cup are also a part of the U.S. team for the ISSF World Championship August 31 – September 14, which will also take place in Changwon. This event is the penultimate World Cup for Rifle and Pistol athletes prior to the World Championships.

The nation that won the most medals at the World Cup in Changwon last month (as well as broke or set three World Records) was China and their seven medal winners from that stage will also compete in this World Cup. Learn more about the results from the previous World Cup stage in Changwon: http://www.issf-sports.org/news.ashx?newsid=3032.

The last time the U.S. hosted an ISSF World Cup was also in Fort Benning in 2015. The ISSF World Cup opens Monday at Fort Benning and concludes on May 15. A complete schedule of events and results can be found here: http://www.issf-sports.org/competitions ... hipid=2392. This event is free and open to the public.