COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado – Look for young guns and seasoned stalwarts to lead the USA Shooting Team in the Rifle events at the 52nd International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship August 31 – September 15 in Changwon, South Korea. Twenty Olympic quotas will be up for grabs in the Rifle events and the U.S. should be poised to pocket a few, along with some hardware in South Korea.
Three-time Olympic medalist Matt Emmons (Browns Mills, New Jersey, pictured) will make his sixth World Championship appearance in Changwon where he will shoot Men’s Three-Position Rifle and Prone Rifle. Though his highest international finish this year was fourth at the World Cup in Changwon, he’s been posting world-class Qualification scores throughout 2018, including most recently shooting a score of 1182 on his second day of Qualification at the USA Shooting National Championships. Emmons will also shoot the Men’s Prone Rifle event in which he won gold in 2002, bronze in 2010 and bronze as a Junior in 1998.
With the elimination of Men’s Prone Rifle from the Olympic program, Emmons’ two-time Olympic teammate Michael McPhail(Darlington, Wisconsin/U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit) has beefed up his Three-Position Rifle game, most recently finishing just out of the Finals in 10th place at the World Cup on his home range in Fort Benning, Georgia. In the past two World Cups, he’s posted Qualification scores of 1170. At the 2014 World Championship, McPhail won bronze in Men’s 300m Prone Rifle, which he will once again compete in Changwon. In addition to these two events, McPhail will also shoot Men’s 50m Prone Rifle. Sarah Beard (Danville, Indiana) will make her third trip to a World Championship when she heads to Changwon. Though she’s taken much of the year off from international competition due to joining the Army, she showed she’s ready for the international stage, finishing seventh at the World Cup in Fort Benning in Women’s Three-Position Rifle, as well as posting world-class scores (623.8 and 628.3) on both days of Qualification in Women’s Air Rifle at the National Championships. She’ll have lots of chances at medals as she’ll be shooting not only these events, but the Air Rifle Mixed Team event, Prone, 300m Three-Position and 300m Prone Rifle. Beard won silver in 2010 in Junior Women’s Prone Rifle in Munich, Germany.
Mindy Miles (Weatherford, Texas) was the top finisher in Women’s Air Rifle selection for this World Championship and will look to prove herself on the world stage in Changwon where she just missed the Women’s Air Rifle Final earlier this year at their World Cup with a world-class score of 627.3. Fresh off a successful career at TCU that included four of the 10-best collegiate Air Rifle scores in the 2017-2018 NCAA season, including a perfect 600 score. At the 2014 World Championship, Miles finished in eighth place in Junior Women’s Air Rifle.
Strong performances should be expected from the contingent of Junior athletes who will compete at this World Championship as well. Morgan Phillips (Salisbury, Maryland) just picked up two medals (gold in Prone and silver in Three-Position Rifle) at the Junior World Cup in June in Suhl, Germany. She equaled her Junior World Record on her way to the gold, shooting a 626.8 in Qualification. At last year’s Junior World Championship, she finished just off the podium in fourth place in Three-Position Rifle and eighth in Prone Rifle. She will shoot both events in Changwon. Elizabeth Marsh (Searcy, Arkansas) also just recently won gold in Three-Position Rifle the Meeting of the Shooting Hopes match in July in Plzen, Czech Republic. Marsh was the only Junior female athlete to qualify to shoot Air and Three-Position Rifle during the National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships in April. She will also compete in Prone Rifle.
Two-time Men’s Air Rifle NJOSC winner Logan Ogden (Galway, New York) had been dominating his competition domestically, consistently posting world-class scores, as well as winning the Open-level overall selection process for the World Championship Team, and winning Winter Airgun Championships in December. Most recently he finished in ninth place at the Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany. Will Shaner (Colorado Springs, Colorado) won the overall silver in Men’s Air Rifle at the National Championships and was the only Junior Male Rifle athlete to qualify for the World Championship Team in Air and Three-Position Rifle. His second-day performance at the National Championship of 624.3 would qualify him for most international Junior Finals. Shaner won gold in the Men’s Prone Rifle event at the Junior World Cup in June in Suhl, Germany, and an event he will also shoot at the World Championship.
Overall, the United States won three medals in the Rifle events at the World Championship in 2014. Check out the complete World Champs U.S. Team preview in the latest edition of USA Shooting News: http://www.usashooting.org/news/usasnews/2018-Q2-USASNews/index.html.
About USA Shooting: USA Shooting, a 501c3 non-profit corporation, was chartered by the United States Olympic Committee as the National Governing Body for the sport of shooting in April 1995. USA Shooting’s mission is to prepare American athletes to win Olympic medals, promote the shooting sports throughout the U.S. and govern the conduct of international shooting in the country. Check us out on the web at usashooting.org and on Twitter at twitter.com/USAShooting.
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