James Henderson hugs Sarah Beard after she won an Olympic quota when she fi nished in fi fth place in Women’s Air Rifl e. Hen- derson also won an Olympic quota on the same day when he placed fourth in Men’s Free Pistol.


round of applause of the crowd in attendance. “I was thinking about


the World Record with 15 [shots] to go!” McPhail said. “I’ve shot above the World Record before in national- level matches, two or three times before.


I wanted it


pretty bad.” Fellow American Matt


Emmons (Browns Mills, New Jersey) had a strong Qualifi - cation round himself, fi nish- ing Qualifi cation in second place with a score of 628.2. Emmons had won gold and an Olympic quota at the fi rstISSF Rifl e/Pistol World Cup of the season in Chang- won, South Korea in April. Once the pair had entered


the Final, McPhail continued to inch up the leaderboard, spending the fi rst half of the Final trailing in second place behind Ole Kristian Bryhn of Norway. As Bryhn started to falter in his fi nal six shots, McPhail continued to shoot strong to take over the lead and eventually, the gold medal. “[Entering the Final] I


thought I’d have a run of a few good shots in a row, and when it fi nally happened I thought ‘It’s about time,’” he said.


In Men’s Rapid Fire Pis-


tol, Keith Sanderson (Colo- rado Springs, Colorado) was


July 2015 | USA Shooting News 17


the highest U.S. fi nish in sixth place. In Women’s Three-Po-


sition Rifl e, Amy Sowash (Richmond, Kentucky, pic- tured top on the following page) fi nished the Qualifi ca- tion round of with a score of 585 – enough to move her on to the Finals. By virtue of just qualifying for the Finals, Sowash earned an Olympic quota (since the rest of the competitors in her Final had already received quotas). “I found out I had won


the quota right before the Finals,” she said. “[Assis- tant National Coach] Jason Parker got the confi rmation and he was like ‘You’ve got the quota – now go do good things.’ I knew it going in and it was awesome.” Sowash said knowing she had a quota locked down prior to entering the Final helped take some of the pressure off. “The fi eld


Keith Sanderson fi nished in sixth place in Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol.


was hard today,” she said. “You’ve got the top shooters and they all shot well. I still need to work on prone, but I shot great in standing and did some things right. It’s hard to feel bad when you’ve won a quota and shot okay. I feel good and it’s a good


step…Now I guess that’s the game between now and the Olympics – fi guring out how you can win. I can make a fi nal, now I’ve got to get the winning part down.” Sowash would fi nish seventh overall. On the fi nal day of com- petition, Emmons won a


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