Sanderson and Rhode Each Win Silver at Rio World Cup

Sanderson and Rhode Each Win Silver at Rio World Cup
Sanderson and Rhode Each Win Silver at Rio World Cup
USA Shooting
USA Shooting

Colorado Springs, CO -(AmmoLand.com)- USA Shooting athletes doubled up on medals today at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as Keith Sanderson and Kim Rhode will each be bringing home a silver medal in Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol and Women’s Skeet respectively.

In the Women’s Skeet event earlier in the day, Rhode (El Monte, California, right) qualified for a spot in the Semifinals in first place with 72/75 targets. She was joined in the Semifinals by teammate Amber English (Colorado Springs, Colorado) with 71 targets.

Once in the Semifinals, Rhode would advance to the gold-medal match with a leading 14/16 targets. Just one target back, English, Lu Min of China and Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit of Thailand would compete in a three-way shootoff to determine who would advance to the gold- or bronze-medal matches, with Jiewchaloemmit moving on to compete against Rhode for gold.

The gold medal would be determined by a shootoff as well as both competitors hit 15/16 targets. On the fourth pair in the shootoff, Rhode would miss and Jiewchaloemmit would hit both for the win. Min would win the bronze medal over English, 13 targets to 12.

Women’s Skeet World Champion and 2016 Olympic Team nominee Morgan Craft (Muncy Valley, Pennsylvania) finished in 10th place with 69 targets – just one target out of a possible Semifinals berth.

In Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol, Sanderson (Colorado Springs, Colorado) advanced to the Finals in fifth place with a score of 582. Once in the Finals, however, Sanderson (pictured) would fight to continually advance in the competition, right up until the second-to-the-last series when Alexei Klimov of Russia would seal his gold-medal fate with a six-hit advantage (each series in Rapid Fire Pistol has a maximum potential of five hits) for a score of 35, equaling the Finals World Record. Prior to his last series, Sanderson would congratulate Klimov on his win and finish with a strong four-hit series for a final score of 31. Jean Quiquampoix of France won the bronze medal.

2016 Olympic Team nominee Emil Milev (Temple Terrace, Florida) finished in 18th place with a score of 578.

The other U.S. medal won at this World Cup came from Glenn Eller (Houston, Texas/U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit) last week when he won bronze in Men’s Double Trap.

The ISSF World Cup wraps tomorrow with the Men’s Three-Position Rifle and Men’s Skeet competitions. Matt Emmons (Browns Mills, New Jersey) and Dempster Christenson (Sioux Falls, South Dakota) advanced from the Elimination rounds and will begin Qualification. After the first 75 targets, 2016 Olympic Team nominee and two-time gold medalist Vincent Hancock (Eatonton, Georgia) currently has 74 targets. Hancock’s 2012 Olympic teammate Frank Thompson (Alliance, Nebraska) and Hayden Stewart (Columbia, Tennessee/USAMU) are tied at 72.

More than 660 athletes from 88 countries have made their way to this third World Cup of the season, which serves as the test event for the Olympic Shooting Centre located inside Deodoro Park, one of three venue clusters for the 2016 Olympic Games. The range, opened in 2007, has already hosted the shooting events of the 2007 Pan American Games, as well as an ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Cup in 2008.

The ISSF World Cup in Rio officially concludes tomorrow. For a complete schedule and live results, please visit: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/schedule.ashx?cshipid=1822.

*Photos courtesy of ISSF

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.

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