Colorado Springs, CO -(AmmoLand.com)- Eight USA Shooting athletes have traveled to Sydney, Australia in the hopes of growing their number of Paralympic quotas at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Shooting World Cup September 12 – 20 at the Sydney International Shooting Centre.
More than 150 athletes from 34 countries will compete at the penultimate match for earning quotas for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The two U.S. athletes who’ve already secured Paralympic quotas – McKenna Dahl (Arlington, Washington) in R4 (Mixed 10m Air Rifle Standing SH2) and Michael Tagliapietra (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin) in P3 (Mixed 25m Pistol SH1) – are among the athletes competing at this event. Dahl and Tagliapietra earned their quotas at the 2014 IPC Shooting World Championships last summer in Germany.
Joining them on the line in hopes of earning more quotas are rifle athletes Tammy Delano (Rome, New York), Nick Beach (Dresden, Ohio),Israel del Toro (Cibolo, Texas) and John Joss (U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit/Corsicana, Texas, pictured). Though Joss has struggled over the past year in international Paralympic competition, his results this summer suggest things may be looking up. Most recently he competed in one of two Men’s Open Prone Finals at the USA Shooting National Championships where he finished 17th overall. He also earned the Minimum Qualifying Score (MQS) when he shot in the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan last month. Joss was the only Paralympic athlete to compete at the event.
“If I earn a quota in 50m Prone [in Sydney], I’ll be a happy son of a gun,” Joss said. “If I earn one in both [10m Air Prone and 50m Prone], I’ll be ecstatic. I’ve been really putting my effort into 50 meter so I think I’m going to get it there.”
Joss will compete in the R3 (Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1) and R6 (Mixed 50m Rifle Prone SH1) events in Australia.
Len Esparza (Cupertino, California) and Shaun Tichenor (USAMU/Brainerd, Minnesota) will compete in the Pistol events for the United Fort Benning, Georgia last year where he finished in eighth and has finished just outside of several Finals this year. He and Joss are featured in the latest edition of USA Shooting News. Read more about these States. Tichenor made his Finals debut in P1 (Men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1) at the World Cup on his home range in athletes here: https://content.yudu.com/
Competition begins Tuesday with Beach competing in Qualification for R1 (Men’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1). View the full schedule of this World Cup here: https://www.paralympic.org/
To learn more about the Paralympic quota process and our athletes who recently commemorated one year to the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Paralympic Games (September 7), visit our Rio in Sight page: https://www.usashooting.org/12-
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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.