By Grant Meech, Sports Director
Thirty-five USA Shooting athletes will get their first look at the shooting venues for the 2016 Olympic Games when the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup kicks off in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Thursday.
More than 660 athletes from 88 countries have made their way to the third World Cup of the season, which will also serve as the test event for the Olympic Shooting Centre located inside Deodoro Park, one of three venue clusters for the Olympic Games. The range, opened in 2007, has already hosted the shooting events of the 2007 Pan American Games, as well as an ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Cup in 2008.
Among the 35 U.S. athletes competing are those who have secured Olympic Team nominations thus far; including five of the newest nominees to Team USA who punched their ticket to Rio last week with their wins at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Smallbore in Fort Benning, Georgia: David Higgins (San Clemente, California) in Men’s Prone Rifle, Jay Shi(Phoenix, Arizona) in Men’s Free Pistol, Virginia Thrasher (Springfield, Virginia) in Women’s Three-Position Rifle, Emil Milev (Temple Terrace, Florida) in Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol andEnkelejda Shehaj (Naples, Florida) in Women’s Sport Pistol.
The competition schedule for this World Cup is similar to that of the 2016 Olympic Games as action starts with the Women’s Air Rifle, Women’s Trap and Men’s Air Pistol competitions.
The women’s rifle events will not only be well-represented by Thrasher, who also won the NCAA Smallbore and Air National Championship titles earlier this year, but her teammates, 2012 Olympian Sarah Scherer (Woburn, Massachusetts) and 2015 Women’s Three-Position and Air Rifle National Champion Sarah Beard (Danville, Indiana). Beard finished in fourth place in Women’s Three-Position Rifle and Scherer finished seventh in Three-Position and eighth in Women’s Air Rifle at the first ISSF World Cup of the season in Bangkok, Thailand.
Later in the week, the men’s rifle events will be led by Olympic Team nominees Higgins, Matt Emmons (Browns Mills, New Jersey) and Michael McPhail (Darlington, Wisconsin/U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit). As the top-ranked Men’s Three-Position Rifle shooter in the world, Emmons most recently won gold at the World Cup in Bangkok in March. McPhail, who is currently ranked second in the world in Men’s Prone Rifle, most recently finished just off the podium in fourth place at the Bangkok World Cup. McPhail, Emmons and Higgins will all compete in the Men’s Prone Rifle event.
Posted by Thom Erik Syrdahl
Source: http://www.koaa.com/story
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