Fifteen USA Shooting Team Members Headed to Kazakhstan for Country’s First ISSF World Cup Event
OutdoorHub 05.15.14
The first international trip of a busy shooting season is underway as 15 USA Shooting Team athletes earned the right to compete in Almaty, Kazakhstan for the country’s first-ever International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup event, May 18-24.
The World Shooting Championships in Granada, Spain, will take place in less than four months and athletes are busy establishing the routine they hope carries them to a World Championship medal and a potential Olympic quota spot. With that in mind, 15 members of the U.S. Shotgun Team headed to Granada, have made the long trip overseas to hopefully continue what the team established during the season’s first World Cup event in Tucson, Ariz., in early April, when it won four medals, tops among all participating countries.
Among them are Tucson World Cup medalists Jeff Holguin (USAMU/Yorba Linda, Calif.), Josh Richmond (USAMU/Hillsgrove, Pa.), Dustin Perry (Lovelady, Texas) and Kim Rhode (El Monte, Calif.). Olympians Holguin, Richmond and Rhode won gold, silver and bronze respectively last month while Perry earned the first World Cup medal of his career with a bronze as well. He was in contention for gold shooting a 124/125 before succumbing to other challengers in the gold-medal shoot-off.
Add to that display of strength the addition of reigning two-time Olympic gold medalist Vincent Hancock (Eatonton, Ga.), Olympian Frank Thompson (Alliance, Neb.), Tucson World Cup fourth-place finisher Brandy Drozd (Bryan, Texas), four-time World Cup medalist Haley Dunn (Eddyville, Iowa) and reigning Double Trap Junior World Champion Ian Rupert (Muncy, Pa.) and the components are in place for the team’s continued shooting success.
Trap specialists including Ryan Hadden (USAMU/Pendleton, Ore.), Seth Inman (USAMU/Independence, Mo.), Jake Wallace (Castiac, Calif.), Janessa Beaman (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Ashley Carroll (Solvang, Calif.) and Rachael Heiden (Clinton, Mich.) will look to get back into medal contention after being shut out in Tucson. Carroll was the team’s top finisher in 10th place.
The event, which is set to feature 311 athletes competing from 46 nations, will take place at the Asanov Shooting Club near Almaty, named after the Soviet Union’s successful trap shooter Alexandr Asanov, a three-time World Championships medalist and two-time Olympian. Despite their first ISSF event, the Shooting Club isn’t new to big-time shooting events having successfully conducted the 24th Asian Clay Shooting Championship in 2009, the 1st, 2nd & 3rd Union Championships (Open Grand Prix of CIS) in 2010, 2011 & 2012 and several National Championships and Grand Prix competitions.
Almaty Shotgun World Cup Schedule
Sunday, May 18 – Women’s Skeet Qualifying + Finals, Men’s Skeet Qualifying Day 1
Monday, May 19 – Men’s Skeet Qualifying + Finals
Wednesday, May 21 – Double Trap Qualifying + Finals
Friday, May 23 – Women’s Trap Qualifying + Finals, Men’s Trap Qualifying Day 1
Saturday, May 24 – Men’s Trap Qualifying +Finals
