Silver Medal at elite World Cup Finals
Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 9:50 pm
By USA Shooting & U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit
GRENADA, Spain – A U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit Soldier from Fort Benning, Ga., won the only medal for the U.S. Shooting Team at the World Cup Finals.
It was the final day of competition for Team USA at the International Shooting Sports Federation 2006 World Cup Finals. Two U.S. shooters had finished fourth in the competition, but no one had snagged a coveted medal to bring home to the United States. Enter Sgt. 1st Class Thomas A. Tamas, who earned his trip to the finals by taking the Gold Medal in Men’s Free Rifle Prone at the 2006 Brazil World Cup.
Three U.S. athletes were shooting in the Men’s Prone event. Including Tamas, prone Olympic Gold Medalist Matt Emmons and reigning World Cup champion Eric Uptagrafft were both on deck to help secure medal stand hardware.
After the first round, Uptagrafft shot a 598 out of a possible 600 to sit tied for third. Tamas was just two points behind and in sixth, while Emmons was in eighth with a score of 593. It was still anybody’s podium, and with only six points separating the top 10, each shooter would have to have near perfect scores for the win.
This year’s World Champion, Sergei Martynov of Russia, remained on top through qualifying and into the finals. Never wavering, the Russian is the current world record holder, a three-time World Cup Final winner and a nine-time World Cup Gold Medalist. He once again proved that he earned his number one world ranking by taking the top step on the podium at the end of yet another World Cup season.
The battle remained for second place. Tamas jumped from sixth to overtake teammate Uptagrafft, creating a tough match between Tamas and Israeli Guy Starik. After 10 shots it came down to Tamas scoring a 10.8 and a 10.6 to close the match with a 701.8 for the Silver Medal. He dropped Starik in the points to Bronze by only 8/10ths of a point. Uptagrafft finished in fourth with a 700.3 and Emmons shot a 695.6 for seventh.
Tamas, a native of Columbus, Ga., graduated from Kendrick High School in 1983 and started shooting in 1978 with the Fort Benning Junior Rifle Team. He is a two-time Olympian as well as a former World Champion and World Record holder with a perfect score of 600, which he shot when he won the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, in 1998.
After joining the Army in 1986, Tamas was assigned to the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit after he completed Basic and Infantry Training at Fort Benning. He served with the Army Marksmanship Unit for seven years before being assigned to the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, in Korea in 1992. After his overseas tour, Tamas returned to Fort Benning and Marksmanship Unit in 1993.
Tamas was selected as the 1999 USA Shooting International Rifle Shooter of the Year, as well as the U.S. Olympic Committee Shooter of the Year title. In 1992, Tamas did not get to compete in the Olympics because he was an alternate, and in 2000 he placed 13th in Prone Rifle at the Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
The ISSF World Cup Finals, which is also called the Champion of Champions match, is the most elite shooting competition of the year. Only the best shooters in the world received an invitation from the ISSF to the year’s most-exclusive competition. The decision of whom was invited was made by how well the shooter placed at the World Cups and World Championships over the season. The ISSF only invited the top shooters in the world to compete in this elite match, which is the traditional closing competition of the international shooting season.
(Formed in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to raise the standards of marksmanship throughout the U.S. Army, the Army Marksmanship Unit is assigned to the Accessions Support Brigade of the U.S. Army Accessions Command. The Marksmanship Unit trains its Soldiers to win competitions and enhances combat readiness through train-the-trainer clinics, research and development. For more information on the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, contact the Public Affairs Office at (706) 545-5436, paula.pagan@usaac.army.mil or www.usamu.com. USA Shooting is recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee and the International Shooting Sport Federation as the national governing body for the Olympic and international shooting sports in the United States. For more information on USA Shooting, contact Public Relations Manager Najasila Campbell at (719) 866-4896 or http://www.usashooting.com.)
GRENADA, Spain – A U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit Soldier from Fort Benning, Ga., won the only medal for the U.S. Shooting Team at the World Cup Finals.
It was the final day of competition for Team USA at the International Shooting Sports Federation 2006 World Cup Finals. Two U.S. shooters had finished fourth in the competition, but no one had snagged a coveted medal to bring home to the United States. Enter Sgt. 1st Class Thomas A. Tamas, who earned his trip to the finals by taking the Gold Medal in Men’s Free Rifle Prone at the 2006 Brazil World Cup.
Three U.S. athletes were shooting in the Men’s Prone event. Including Tamas, prone Olympic Gold Medalist Matt Emmons and reigning World Cup champion Eric Uptagrafft were both on deck to help secure medal stand hardware.
After the first round, Uptagrafft shot a 598 out of a possible 600 to sit tied for third. Tamas was just two points behind and in sixth, while Emmons was in eighth with a score of 593. It was still anybody’s podium, and with only six points separating the top 10, each shooter would have to have near perfect scores for the win.
This year’s World Champion, Sergei Martynov of Russia, remained on top through qualifying and into the finals. Never wavering, the Russian is the current world record holder, a three-time World Cup Final winner and a nine-time World Cup Gold Medalist. He once again proved that he earned his number one world ranking by taking the top step on the podium at the end of yet another World Cup season.
The battle remained for second place. Tamas jumped from sixth to overtake teammate Uptagrafft, creating a tough match between Tamas and Israeli Guy Starik. After 10 shots it came down to Tamas scoring a 10.8 and a 10.6 to close the match with a 701.8 for the Silver Medal. He dropped Starik in the points to Bronze by only 8/10ths of a point. Uptagrafft finished in fourth with a 700.3 and Emmons shot a 695.6 for seventh.
Tamas, a native of Columbus, Ga., graduated from Kendrick High School in 1983 and started shooting in 1978 with the Fort Benning Junior Rifle Team. He is a two-time Olympian as well as a former World Champion and World Record holder with a perfect score of 600, which he shot when he won the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, in 1998.
After joining the Army in 1986, Tamas was assigned to the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit after he completed Basic and Infantry Training at Fort Benning. He served with the Army Marksmanship Unit for seven years before being assigned to the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, in Korea in 1992. After his overseas tour, Tamas returned to Fort Benning and Marksmanship Unit in 1993.
Tamas was selected as the 1999 USA Shooting International Rifle Shooter of the Year, as well as the U.S. Olympic Committee Shooter of the Year title. In 1992, Tamas did not get to compete in the Olympics because he was an alternate, and in 2000 he placed 13th in Prone Rifle at the Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
The ISSF World Cup Finals, which is also called the Champion of Champions match, is the most elite shooting competition of the year. Only the best shooters in the world received an invitation from the ISSF to the year’s most-exclusive competition. The decision of whom was invited was made by how well the shooter placed at the World Cups and World Championships over the season. The ISSF only invited the top shooters in the world to compete in this elite match, which is the traditional closing competition of the international shooting season.
(Formed in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to raise the standards of marksmanship throughout the U.S. Army, the Army Marksmanship Unit is assigned to the Accessions Support Brigade of the U.S. Army Accessions Command. The Marksmanship Unit trains its Soldiers to win competitions and enhances combat readiness through train-the-trainer clinics, research and development. For more information on the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, contact the Public Affairs Office at (706) 545-5436, paula.pagan@usaac.army.mil or www.usamu.com. USA Shooting is recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee and the International Shooting Sport Federation as the national governing body for the Olympic and international shooting sports in the United States. For more information on USA Shooting, contact Public Relations Manager Najasila Campbell at (719) 866-4896 or http://www.usashooting.com.)