2015 ISSF SHOTGUN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ® Viva Italia For USA Shooting Shotgun Team As the nation’s best
shotgun athletes traveled to Lonato, Italy for the Inter- national Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championships, the mission consisted of earning medals and Olympic spots while set- ting the stage for things to come in Rio next year. After earning 12 med- als including gold-medal performances by Vincent Hancock, Morgan Craft and team top honors in Women’s Skeet and Junior Women’s Skeet you can say the mission was accom- plished.
The measuring stick of success of course in shotgun often lies in how you fared against the mighty Italians, especially on their home turf. And in that race, it was a dead heat with the U.S. winning two more indi- vidual medals (7), while the Italians had two more team medals (7). Climbing to the top of the medal podium this time around was no easy task for Hancock as he would need to out-duel a hot-shooting Anthony Terras of France
who hadn’t missed a target yet when Hancock met up with him in the gold-medal À QDO +DQFRFN DQG 7HUUDV would both shoot a clean round. In the shoot-off, Han- cock would eventually best Terras, 8-7—Terras’ only miss over 165 targets. Not only is this Han- cock’s third World Champi- onship title, he’s only the third athlete to ever win three Men’s Skeet World Championship gold medals. +DQFRFN LV DOVR WKH À UVW American shotgun athlete to win three World Champion- ship titles. Hancock even won it in the same place he ZRQ KLV À UVW :RUOG &KDPSL onship title 10 years ago at the age of 16.
On the Junior side, Phillip Jungman would earn silver after dropping the gold- PHGDO À QDO
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Valerio Palmucci. Jungman LV WKH À UVW $PHULFDQ PDOH to win two individual Junior World Championship med- als. He also won an indi- vidual bronze medal at the World Championship last year in Granada, Spain. A late-season surge
helped ensure 2008 Olym- pic gold medalist Glenn (OOHU D À IWK VWUDLJKW 2O\PSLF Team nomination in Double Trap. The U.S. Army Marks- manship Unit (USAMU) DWKOHWH FRQÀ UPHG DV PXFK LQ /RQDWR ZLWK WZR VWURQJ À QDO TXDOLÀ FDWLRQ URXQGV DQG then surviving a shoot-off to advance to the event Finals ZKHUH KH·G À QLVK VL[WK good enough to earn him an Olympic nomination. Women’s Skeet athletes
from the U.S. brought back a lot of hardware as Morgan Craft and Caitlin Connor went gold/silver respectively in the Open division and Sydney Carson and Dania Vizzi took silver/bronze in the Junior division. Both teams earned gold as well. The competition in the Open division couldn’t have been more intense as the gold-medal match turned
Top: Caitlin Connor & Morgan Craft win silver, gold in Women’s Skeet. Below: Vincent Hancock. All photos by ISSF.
66 USA Shooting News | Year in Review 2015
into an American face-off for not only a gold medal, but also a nomination to the 2016 Olympic Team. Craft and Connor fought
their way to the gold-medal match through a three-way shoot-off with eventual bronze medalist Ning Wei of China. Once in the gold- medal match, Craft and Connor were tied up right until the second-to-last pair RI WDUJHWV 2Q WKH À QDO SDLU Connor missed both targets, leaving the door open for Craft who would hit both to take the gold medal, 15 – 13.
Trap success among USA
Junior women continued in a big way when Ellie Roditis earned a bronze medal. Not bad for someone making her international debut. Roditis’ performance helped push the U.S. to a Junior Team bronze medal as well, combining with Emily Hampson and Grace Hambuchen to earn the team accomplishment.
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