World Championship Preview: Pistol
Rapid-Fire Response And Bridge to the Future
The pistol team will be led
by the resurgence of Rapid Fire Pistol shooter Keith Sanderson who has earned a spot in all three World Cup fi nals this season and secured a win in World Cup USA in Ft. Benning, Geor- gia. The two-time Olympian Sanderson had battled a forearm ailment throughout the last quad, but a surgery in 2013 to alleviate the pain he was experiencing in grip- ping his pistol seems to have helped get Sanderson back to the form that saw him lead his Olympic qualifi ca- tion match in 2008 and fi n- ish fi fth overall in Beijing. Sanderson, along with
Olympians Jason Turner and Sandra Uptagrafft, will help try to end a U.S. World Cham- pionship medal drought in
pistol that dates back to 1981 for the open (non-Ju- nior) division when Don Ny- gord won a world title in Air Pistol. The last pistol World Championship medalist of any kind was junior pistol shooter Laura Santibanez, a 1998 bronze medalist in the junior 25-meter Pistol event. Despite that, the U.S.
squad will have a member of its team that does have World Championship hard- ware in Rapid Fire Pistol- athlete Emil Milev - 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. Also worth noting in pistol
is the infl ux of shooting tal- ent originating from South- ern California with four of the nine junior team shooters being groomed by Assistant National Team Pistol Coach In Kim and his Bridge Junior Shooting Club, a USA Shoot- ing Certifi ed Training Center. Those members include Daniel Cheon, Helen Oh, Brian Kim (pictured below) and Tony Chung. Two other representatives Justin Ahn and Cindy Chung also made the team based on their scores at the recent USA Shooting National Champi- onships but declined their invitation due to school. “I’m really pleased with
the makeup of this team,” said Pistol National Team
For more information, visit the ISSF World Championship page on the USA Shooting website by scanning this QR code.
Coach Sergey Luzov. “Most of all our open category athletes have shot interna- tionally competitive scores somewhere along the line and we will have our oppor- tunities in Granada. Cer- tainly, the strength of Kim’s Bridge Jr. Shooting Club must be recognized for the efforts that go into having placed so many quality rep- resentatives on the team. Read the story about Kim’s club on pg. 37. He’s done an excellent job in helping pro- vide a pathway for young ju- nior shooters to compete in Olympic pistol. Overall, it’s important for us to be com- petitive, shoot for our best and help nurture the talent around us.”
September 2014 | USA Shooting News
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