No Rest for Rifle and Pistol Athletes – on to Maribor World Cup
OutdoorHub 06.16.14
It’s back-to-back matches for Rifle and Pistol athletes of the USA Shooting Team as they depart directly from the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Munich, Germany to head east to the next World Cup of the season – this time Maribor, Slovenia.
U.S. athletes will be looking to build on the match experience gained in the largest World Cup of the year in Munich when they compete in Maribor – the last World Cup for the team before they head to the World Championship in Granada, Spain this September.
Though the U.S. finished the Munich World Cup in second place in the medal count (Seven total: Two gold, three silver and two bronze), rifle and pistol athletes were shut out of the medals. The pair of near-podium finishes came from Keith Sanderson (Colorado Springs, Colorado, pictured right), who placed fourth in Rapid Fire Pistol, and Matt Emmons (Browns Mills, New Jersey), who also placed fourth in Men’s Prone Rifle. Sarah Scherer (Woburn, Massachusetts) finished in seventh place in Women’s Air Rifle in Munich. These three Olympians have provided the highlights in their disciplines thus far in 2014 with Sanderson earning a gold medal at the domestic World Cup in Fort Benning, Georgia. Emmons has earned a finals spot in two of the three events he’s competed in since coming back following a lengthy layoff post-London while Scherer most recently earned the second World Cup medal of her career when she won bronze in Three-Position Rifle at World Cup USA in March.
Two 2012 Olympians, Michael McPhail (U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit/Darlington, Wisconsin) and Amanda Furrer (Spokane, Washington), will also compete in Rifle alongside Ryan Anderson (Great Falls, Virginia), Dempster Christenson (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), Connor Davis (Shelbyville, Kentucky), Sarah Beard (Danville, Indiana), Amy Sowash (Richland, Kentucky) and Sagen Maddalena (Groveland, California). Sowash was also a finalist alongside Scherer in Fort Benning earlier this year, finishing fourth. Christenson was an Air Rifle silver medalist at last year’s World Cup stage in Fort Benning.
Along with two-time Olympian Sanderson, four-time Olympian and 1996 Olympic silver medalist Emil Milev (Temple Terrace, Florida), three-time Olympian and 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Jason Turner (Rochester, New York) and 2012 Olympian Sandra Uptagrafft (Phenix City, Alabama) bring a breadth of Olympic experience on the Pistol side for this World Cup and World Championships. Those three will be joined by Will Brown (Twin Falls, Idaho), James Henderson (USAMU/Midland, Georgia), John Zurek (Tucson, Arizona), Brad Balsley (USAMU/Uniontown, Pennsylvania), Teresa (Meyer) Chambers (Dearborn, Michigan) and Enkelejda Shehaj (Naples, Florida). Brown was a World Cup winner in 2013 in the World Cup stage in Fort Benning.
For more information or to follow scores throughout the World Cup, please visit the ISSF website.
Maribor World Cup Schedule
Sunday, June 15: Men’s and Women’s Air Rifle
Monday, June 16: Men’s Free Pistol, Women’s Sport Pistol
Tuesday, June 17: Men’s Prone Rifle and Rapid Fire Pistol
Thursday, June 19: Women’s Three-Position Rifle, Men’s and Women’s Air Pistol
Friday, June 20: Men’s Three-Position Rifle
