Tuesday, 25 June 2013
By Gary Anderson
June 25 -
Nearly 120 competitors will line up at the International Paralympic Committee
(IPC) Shooting World Cup when it takes place at Stoke Mandeville, birthplace of
the Paralympic Games, from June 29 to July 5.
The event is
the third IPC Shooting World Cup of 2013, following competitions in Poland and
Turkey.
The final World Cup is due to take place Thailand from August 12 to 19.
A third of the athletes registered to compete at the Stoke Mandeville event,
will be British, including London 2012 silver and bronze medallist Matt
Skelhon, silver medallist James Bevis and world-record holder Ryan Cockbill.
Skelhon will line up in the R1 men's 10 metre air rifle standing SH1 and R3
mixed 10m air rifle prone SH1 competitions, following his fist place finish in
the latter event at the previous World Cup meeting in Turkey this year.
Great
Britain's Matt Skelhon has his sights set on new qualifying world record
"I'm in good shape - shooting well - so
looking forward to it - would be nice to get the qualifying world record
next," said Skelhon, who narrowly missed out on gold at London 2012 by
finishing just 0.3 points behind Cedric Fevre from France.
Cockbill also collected gold in Turkey and he
will be up against fellow Briton Bevis in both the R4 mixed 10m air rifle
standing SH2 and R5 10m air rifle prone SH2 disciplines.
Slovakia's Veronika Vadovicova has had a very successful year so far in the
women's events.
The gold medallist from Beijing 2008, will
arrive in England having set new world records in the R2 women's 10m air rifle
standing SH1 at each of the World Cup meetings so far this year.
Veronika
Vadovicova celebrates with her gold medal at Beijing 2008
This
will be the first IPC Shooting event to take place in Britain since the London
2012 Paralympic competition took place at the Royal Artillery Barracks in
Greenwich.
Stoke Mandeville is recognized as the birthplace
of the Paralympics Movement, following Dr Ludwig Guttman's setting up of a
competition for wheelchair athletes on July 29 1948, the same day as the
opening of the London 1948 Olympic Games.
Guttman, who worked in the spinal injuries unit
of the nearby Stoke Mandeville Hospital, named the competition the Stoke
Mandeville Games, which later became the Paralympic Games.
Competitors will be using these World Cup events
to help prepare for the 2013 IPC Shooting European Championships which is due
to take place in Alicante from October 18 to 26.
More than 200 athletes from 30 countries are
expected to compete at Club Lucetum in the Spanish city.
The 2013 European Championships will be the
first major international competition to feature new finals formats and decimal
scoring in 10m Air Rifle and 50m Prone Rifle events.
Decimal scoring will enable athletes to
potentially add 54 points to their overall score and help to eliminate the
prospect of ties occurring, while in the finals of each event, athletes will
start from a score of zero rather than carry their score over from
qualification.
Posted by Thom Erik Syrdahl
Source - Google Alerts - IPC Shooting:
