Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Munich Test Awaits USA Shooting Team

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (May 21, 2018) - Just over a week after the conclusion of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Fort Benning, Georgia, the USA Shooting Team has headed across the Pond to Munich, Germany for the next ISSF World Cup for Rifle and Pistol beginning Thursday.

This World Cup is crucial to the preparation of the USA Shooting Team as it is the last in the ISSF season for Rifle and Pistol athletes prior to the ISSF World Championship August 31 – September 15 in Changwon, South Korea. The World Championship is the first opportunity for countries to earn valuable quotas for the 2020 Olympic Games. (essentially a country’s ticket to participate in a given event in the Olympic Games).

Nineteen USA Shooting athletes will hope to break the medal barrier they faced in Fort Benning. The Mixed Air Pistol Team of Alexis Lagan (Boulder City, Nevada) and Nick Mowrer (Butte, Montana) -- pictured above -- will be looking to get on the podium where they were one of the top finishes in Fort Benning for the U.S. team, placing fourth in the Team event.

“The whole team thing is kind of a strange dynamic. We’re not really used to it yet, but we’re building towards it and trying out different strategies” Mowrer said following their performance in Fort Benning.

“We’ve been training a shot plan and how much time each of us is going to spend and a method before [the World Cup in Changwon, South Korea] and we changed our strategy there, then again in Fort Benning – it’s not something you just hop into,” Lagan said.

“We learned that we can make a Final, which is a barrier to break down within ourselves,” Mowrer added. “We can move toward it with quite a bit of confidence. Even after the Final was over [in Fort Benning], we were watching other competitors shoot, but whispering to each other about things we saw because right in the moment is the best possible time to talk about it, when it’s all fresh. We were talking about little things we saw and nitpicking strategy – not changing anything, but really building off what we’ve done and that can make a big difference come Munich.”

Matt Emmons (Browns Mills, New Jersey) will also look to build on his fourth-place finish at the World Cup in Changwon in March. The three-time Olympic medalist shot an exceptional world-class Qualification score of 1177 in Changwon.

His two-time Olympic teammate Michael McPhail (U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit/Darlington, Wisconsin) has also had near-Finals appearances in Changwon and Fort Benning, posting 1170 in both matches.

Sarah Beard (Danville, Indiana) worked her way into the Finals in Women’s Three-Position Rifle in Fort Benning, finishing seventh overall. Following more than a year away from international competition upon entering the Army following the 2016 World Cup Finals, Beard said she was seeing the fruits of her labor in focusing on Three-Position Rifle and feels confident going into the Munich competition and beyond.

“This was a good benchmark for me of what I need to do to move forward and what I need to work on looking toward World Championships,” Beard said.

TEAM USA ROSTER

Competition officially starts Thursday with Women’s Air Rifle and concludes on May 28. More than 850 athletes from 85 countries will compete in this World Cup. View the complete schedule, start lists and follow along with live results: 
http://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/schedule.ashx?cshipid=2393.

 

ELEY is a Proud Sponsor of the USA Shooting Rifle and Pistol Teams: ELEY Limited, manufacturer of the world's most consistently accurate rimfire ammunition, has been the Official Sponsor and Official Supplier of .22 rimfire ammunition of the USA Shooting rifle and pistol teams since 2000. For more information on ELEY and their products, please visit eley.co.uk.

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Kevin Neuendorf
kevin.neuendorf@usashooting.org