USA Shooting Team Just Misses Finals Berths on Day 1 of 2015 World Cup USA

Connor Davis
Connor Davis
USA Shooting
USA Shooting

Fort Benning, GA -(Ammoland.com)- The first day of official competition at the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) Rifle/Pistol World Cup in Fort Benning opened today with medals awarded in the Men’s Air Rifle and Women’s Sport Pistol disciplines.

While the USA Shooting Team walked away from Day 1 without any medals, promising scores were put up by U.S. shooters. Connor Davis (Shelbyville, Kentucky) was the top Men’s Air Rifle finisher for the U.S., finishing just 1.3 points out of Finals contention with a score of 624.3 for 21st place. Bryant Wallizer (Little Orleans, Maryland) finished in 41st place with a score of 621.0 and George Norton (U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit/Salinas, Kansas) finished in 76th place with a score of 614.8.

Milutin Stefanovic of Serbia won the gold medal for Men’s Air Rifle, Haoran Yang of China won the silver and Anton Rizov of Bulgaria won bronze.

Brenda Silva
Brenda Silva

In Women’s Sport Pistol, 2008 Olympian Brenda Silva (Snowflake, Arizona) finished just two points out of qualifying for the Final with a score of 582 to finish in 10th place – a World Cup personal best for Silva. 2012 Olympian Sandra Uptagrafft (Phenix City, Alabama) finished in 13th place with a score of 580 and Enkelejda Shehaj (Naples, Florida) finished in 30th place with a score of 575.

Gundegmaa Otryad of Mongolia won the gold medal in Women’s Sport Pistol. Antoaneta Boneva of Bulgaria won silver and Jing Jing Zhang of China won bronze.

With so many Men’s Free Pistol competitors (89), two Elimination relays were conducted today with the top 68 finishers moving on to tomorrow’s Qualification round. Scores from an Elimination round do not carry over to Qualification. All of the U.S. shooters in this discipline: Nick Mowrer (Butte, Montana), Will Brown (Twin Falls, Idaho) and James Henderson (USAMU/Midland, Georgia) will move on to tomorrow’s Qualification round.

Medals will be awarded tomorrow in the Men’s Free Pistol and Women’s Air Rifle disciplines. Three Elimination relays for Men’s Prone Rifle will also be contested. Matt Emmons (Browns Mills, New Jersey) won gold in Men’s Prone at the most recent ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Cup in Changwon, South Korea.

This World Cup is the largest USA Shooting has hosted here in the United States with 600 athletes from 76 countries vying for medals and precious Olympic quota slots. A quota spot is essentially the entry ticket necessary for a country to compete in Olympic competition in a particular discipline. USA Shooting athletes winning Olympic quotas will still have to earn the right to compete in the Olympic Games separately. Thus far in the Rifle and Pistol events, the U.S. has only earned one quota each in Men’s Air Rifle, Men’s Air Pistol and Men’s Prone Rifle, with the potential to earn up to an additional 17 for the U.S. prior to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Be sure to follow USA Shooting on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and use #WCUSA15 to follow the event.

Eley Ammunition
Eley Ammunition

About ELEY

ELEY is a Proud Sponsor of the USA Shooting Rifle and Pistol Teams: ELEY Limited, manufacturer of the world’s most consistently accurate rimfire ammunition, has been the Official Sponsor and Official Supplier of .22 rimfire ammunition of the USA Shooting rifle and pistol teams since 2000.

For more information on ELEY and their products, please visit www.eley.co.uk.

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 usashooting.org and on Twitter at twitter.com/USAShooting.