Tammy Delano Wins Bronze to Open IPC Shooting World Cup USA

Tammy Delano
Tammy Delano
USA Shooting
USA Shooting

Fort Benning, GA -(AmmoLand.com)- The first day of competition at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Shooting World Cup wrapped today in Fort Benning with Tammy Delano (Rome, New York, pictured) claiming the bronze medal in the R2 (10m Women’s Air Rifle Standing SH1) event.

Delano qualified for the Final in seventh place with a score of 400.1. Throughout the Final, she would inch her way up the leaderboard. With one elimination shot to go to determine the bronze medal, Delano was tied for second place with Monica Lillehagen of Norway. On the deciding shot, Delano would shoot a 10.0, which Lillehagen would best with a 10.6 to claim the silver medal, as well as the Paralympic quota available in the event. A quota spot is essentially the entry ticket necessary for a country to compete in the Paralympic Games.

“I’m pretty proud of how I did since I’ve been struggling with my standing position,” Delano said. “I just missed the quota, but I’m really happy with how the match went. I definitely need to control my thoughts a bit – that was the big thing in this match. I had more control over my thoughts and it’s been a rough year for me. My head was more into this one than (the most recent World Cup) in Australia. That was like a month after my dad passed away and that was on my mind, but this one was a bit better. I just need to keep going and trust the process.”

Today’s Finals appearance was Delano’s second ever in a Paralympic Games event. She will have another shot at a Paralympic quota on Thursday when she competes in the R3 (Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1) event.

Michael Tagliapietra (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin) snagged the last spot in the P3 (Mixed 25m Pistol SH1) Final today with a Qualification score of 556. In the Final, he would battle not only a tough field, but very sunny conditions and was eventually eliminated in the semifinal stage to finish in seventh place.

Shaun Tichenor (U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit/Brainerd, Minnesota) would finish P3 in 15th place, Kerry Morris (Grand Prairie, Texas) would finish in 31st place and Tricia Downing (Denver, Colorado) finished in 38th place. As a team, Tagliapietra, Tichenor and Morris would earn a bronze medal for their combined qualifying scores.

Also contested today was the R1 (Men’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1) event. The U.S. was shut out of the Finals with the highest American finish coming from newcomer Viraj Chorda who finished in 23rd place. Viktor White (State College, Pennsylvania) finished in 24th place and Nick Beach (Dresden, Ohio) finished in 25th place.

Competition continues through Saturday with the U.S. only having competitors in the R4 (Mixed 10m Air Rifle Standing SH2) event. The four athletes taking the line for the U.S. are McKenna Dahl (Arlington, Washington), Israel del Toro (Cibolo, Texas), Jazmin Almlie-Ryan (Houston, Texas) and Mariah Beckham (Daleville, Alabama).

Nearly 180 athletes from 48 countries will compete during the IPC Shooting World Cup for medals and Paralympic Games quotas.

View start lists complete results from this IPC Shooting World Cup thus far: https://results.sius.com/Events.aspxView photos from this event: https://flic.kr/s/aHskk2q3Zu and follow this event on social media: #IPCWCUSA.

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.