Fort Benning, Ga. –-(Ammoland.com)- Four-time Olympian Emil Milev (Temple Terrace, Fla.) can add another accolade to his illustrious career: 2013 Rapid Fire Pistol National Champion.
Milev took the lone title awarded today at the USA Shooting National Championships for Rifle & Pistol with two strong days of qualification scores and top-three finishes in each of the two finals to end the match with a two-day aggregate score of 1177.
“I’m happy with my scores yesterday, but today had a few rough moments with the gun and with myself so I had a fair score – the final could go better and I was fighting with timing,” Milev said. “I was wanting to put some pressure on but hey, overall I’m very happy with the results. “
Rounding out the top three are two-time Olympian Keith Sanderson (Kailua, Hawaii) with 1174 points and U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit shooter and recently-crowned Center Fire Pistol champion Brad Balsley (Phenix City, Ala.) with 1168 points. With these finishes, Balsley has earned himself a spot on the National Team with Sanderson and Milev and all three athletes will compete at the World Cup in Granada, Spain in July.
The final scores in Rapid Fire Pistol are a combined total of points including qualification scores from yesterday, today and additional points awarded for placing in each day’s final (eight additional points awarded for first, seven points for second, six points for third and so on for all finals positions) as laid out under USA Shooting’s new National Championship and World Cup team selection procedures for this event. For more information on this amendment, please click here: https://bit.ly/18P2ebn .
Women’s Three-Position Rifle competition started today with new Women’s Prone Rifle champion Sarah Beard (Danville, Ind.) leading after Day 1 with an aggregate score of 594 points. In second place is Women’s Air Rifle silver medalist Amy Sowash (Richmond, Ky.) 592 and currently in third place is National Junior Team member Emily Holsopple (Wilcox, Pa.) with 590 points.
In Men’s Air Rifle, National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships gold medalist Connor Davis (Shelbyville, Ky.) is leading after Day 1 with 633.4 points. Currently in second with 622.8 points is the new Men’s Three-Position Rifle silver medalist Dempster Christenson (Sioux Falls, S.D.) and in third place is Garrett Spurgeon (Canton, Mo.) – just one-tenth of a point behind Christenson with 622.7 points.
National Championship action continues tomorrow, along with the naming of new National Champions in Women’s Three-Position Rile and Men’s Air Rifle.
The final matches on the Nationals docket includes two pistol events – Women’s Sport and Men’s 50m Free – along with the prone air rifle event featuring Paralympic competitors. Those events will be contested tomorrow and Sunday to conclude the 2013 USA Shooting National Championships for Rifle/Pistol.
- View scores from all of the events at the USA Shooting National Championships for Rifle & Pistol at https://bit.ly/15U3Ixo.
- View all photos from the USA Shooting National Championships for Rifle & Pistol at www.flickr.com/usashooting.
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 www.usashooting.org and on Twitter at twitter.com/USAShooting