ISSF World Championship Preview
USA Shooting Team Athletes Hope Spain Is Land Where Metals (or Medals) Are Forged
By some etymologic ac-
counts, the origin of the word “Spain” means the land where metals are forged. For 81 USA Shooting Team ath- letes set to compete at the 2014 International Shoot- ing Sports Federation (ISSF) World Championships, Sept. 8-20, they hope that mean- ing serves as a prophetic reality. Poised to relish the mo-
ment as USA Shooting Team members are select ath- letes, including 15 Olympi- ans, representing 37 states. The numbers include 30 shotgun team members, 23 in pistol and 28 rifl e com- petitors. Per usual, there is a large military presence on this USA Shooting Team with 15 members of the team residing at the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit based in Ft. Benning, Ga. Eleven Olympic Training Center (OTC) Resident Athletes also make up the 81 person team.
With more than 2,000
competitors set to compete, the Shooting World Champi- onships are by far the big- gest shooting event every quadrennium and the com- petition will be intense with the start of Olympic qualifi - cation and 64 quota spots available. Two times more quota spots will be available at these World Champion- ships than in any other com- petition the next two years leading up to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. If World Cup success is
any indication, the team is poised for great success in the shotgun events as USA Shooting Team athletes have earned 13 of the 48 possi- ble shotgun medals through three events in 2014. A Ju- nior Team contingent featur- ing all 15 members of the Ju- nior Team that will compete in Spain also earned seven medals as well at a Junior Cup in Suhl, Germany, in- cluding three gold, two silver
and two bronze along with 11 top-seven performances. Admittedly, there’s a
youth movement going on in the rifl e program of USA Shooting. But with youth comes optimism and there’s plenty of leadership to show the young sharpshooters the right way led by Matt Em- mons (Browns Mills, New Jersey). The three-time Olympic medalist has given up Air Rifl e since London, which means more time behind the smallbore gun he loves most. He’s made event fi nals in three of the four World Cup events he’s competed in and will hope to earn his fi rst international medal since London and his fourth World Championship medal come September. Emmons and his Olympic
rifl e teammates from 2012 including Michael McPhail (USAMU/Darlington, Wis- consin), Eric Uptagrafft (USAMU/Phenix City, Ala- bama), Sarah Scherer (Wo- burn, Massachusetts) and Amanda Furrer (Spokane, Washington) will lead a team long on talent, but short on experience. As an Olympic newcomer in 2012, Scherer was strong making the fi - nals of Air Rifl e and fi nish- ing seventh overall despite a severe elbow injury that nearly forced her withdrawal less than two weeks before her event. The 2010 Junior World Champ silver medal-
64 USA Shooting News | July 2014
ist has been strong since as well including this season where she earned a bronze medal in smallbore at World Cup USA followed by a fi nals placement and seventh- place fi nish in Air Rifl e in Maribor, Slovenia. The pistol team will be
led by the resurgence of Rapid Fire Pistol shooter Keith Sanderson (Colorado Springs, pictured) who has managed his way into all three World Cup fi nals this season and secured a win in World Cup USA. The two- time Olympian Sanderson had battled a forearm ail- ment throughout the last quad but a surgery in 2013 to alleviate the pain he was experiencing in gripping his pistol seems to have helped get Sanderson back to the form that saw him lead his Olympic qualifi cation match in 2008 and fi nish fi fth over- all in Beijing. The U.S. squad will have
a member of its team that does have world champion- ship hardware in Rapid Fire Pistol athlete Emil Milev (Temple Terrace, Florida) as he earned a silver medal in 1994 as a member of the Bulgarian National Team. The 1996 Olympic silver medalist, Milev has been competing for USA Shooting since 2009 earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team in 2012 and winning the World Cup Finals last year.
Photo by Marco Dalla Dea/ISSF
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