COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (June 27, 2018)
The second half of the National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships (NJOSC) for Shotgun begins tomorrow with the Skeet competition at the International Shooting Park just south of the city on Fort Carson.
More than 225 young shotgun athletes from across the country have made their way to Colorado Springs to compete for NJOSC medals, glory and potential invitations to the National Junior Team. For a handful of athletes, this year’s NJOSC will also serve as a tune-up prior to the Shotgun Selection Match in late July, as well as the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship later in August in Changwon, South Korea. Junior Shotgun athletes earned their slots on the team for the World Championship during the Spring Selection match in March.
NJOSC, the annual celebration of young clay-crushing talent, began earlier this week with the Trap competition. Read the recap here.
The Skeet field of athletes may be smaller in numbers (71), but the competition will be fierce as the Junior Women’s Skeet medalists will all compete. Leading them will be in Katie Jacob (pictured, Rochester, Michigan), the defending 2017 Junior World Champion. Jacob also won gold at the Junior World Cup last year, setting Junior World Records at both events. The gold that eluded her, however, was the one won by her sister, Jacenta, who won last year’s NJOSC title.
Katie Jacob’s World Championship teammate Austen Smith (Keller, Texas), who won silver at the World Championship last year, had the top qualifying score at 2017’s NJOSC (122), but failed to win an overall medal. Look for her to challenge the Jacob sisters and last year’s bronze medalist at NJOSC and the World Championship Sam Simonton (Gainesville, Georgia) for a spot on the podium.
The Men’s competition brings its share of heavy hitters as well with World Championship team members Alex Ahlin (Bamberg, South Carolina), Nic Moschetti (Broomfield, Colorado) and Eli Christman (Hixson, Tennessee) all competing.
Moschetti won last year’s NJOSC title, after surviving a shootoff with Christman, his teammate for the 2017 World Championship where they won a team bronze medal. Elijah Ellis (College Station, Texas), who was part of that bronze medal-winning team in Moscow, won the bronze medal at the 2017 NJOSC as well, after finishing Qualification with a perfect 125/125 targets. Ahlin didn’t make the overall podium at last year’s NJOSC, but he won the overall bronze at the 2017 National Championships and along with it, an appointment to the National Team.
The first 75 targets will be thrown tomorrow with an additional 50 and Finals contested Friday afternoon at approximately 1:30 p.m. This event is open to the public and free for spectators.
Schedule of events at NJOSC
For more information about the NJOSC, please visit http://www.usashooting.org/7-events/njosc/njoscshotgun.