USA Shooting Shotgun Team Members Set for Cyprus World Cup
OutdoorHub 06.10.13
Led by 2012 Olympian Josh Richmond (Hillsgrove, Pa.) and plenty of other nationally-ranked talent, a 22-person U.S. Shotgun Team has arrived into Nicosia, Cyprus, ahead of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup. The event, June 10-16, is the third of four stops in the ISSF World Cup Series for Shotgun.
The 22-person contingent that will represent Team USA was chosen from the recent Spring Selection Match held in Fort Benning, Ga. The roster features athletes that finished ranked fourth thru sixth in the final open standings and includes the fourth and fifth-placed juniors. The depth of USA Shooting’s shotgun ranks currently is highlighted by the rank and file present in Cyprus.
As an Olympian, the Double Trap specialist Richmond is the marquee name among a very talented squad that also features two reigning National Champions. Richmond, a Staff Sergeant at the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU), is still adjusting to both the new Double Trap format that the ISSF instituted beginning this year as well as a change in gun setups which was evident given his fifth-place finish at Spring Selection. Richmond’s Double Trap teammates also include reigning National Champion Billy Crawford (Johnstown, Ohio) as well as recent World Cup bronze medalist Ian Rupert (Muncy, Pa.), who earned his first World Cup medal in the first event of the year in Acapulco, Mexico.
A Show-Me State trio of Trap shooters is set to compete in their first World Cup event as Seth Inman (Independence, Mo.), Corey Spruill (Saint Charles, Mo.) and Bradley Beckmann (Chesterfield, Mo.) ready for Monday’s World Cup beginning. In Women’s Trap, last year’s Nationals runner-up Miranda Wilder (Diana, Texas) and bronze medalist Janessa Beaman (Colorado Springs, Colo.) are participating as is Kimberley Bowers (Lafayette, Calif.), fresh off a silver-medal performance at a prestigious junior competition Thursday in Suhl, Germany.
In Skeet, two of the men’s 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials finalists are ready for action in Cyprus including USAMU soldier Mark Weeks (Clinton Township, Mich.) and Dustin Perry (Lovelady, Texas). On the women’s side, current National Champion Jaiden Grinnell (Port Angeles, Wash.) and Nationals bronze medalist Amber English (Colorado Springs, Colo.) will try and bring home some hardware for the U.S. women. Grinnell earned a trip to the finals of the Acapulco World Cup and finished fifth overall.
The final ISSF World Cup of the year is scheduled for July 3-13 in Granada, Spain, and will feature another 25 U.S. Shotgun Team members along with the U.S. Rifle and Pistol Teams as the only mixed World Cup competition on the ISSF event calendar in 2013.
