Holguin Claims Individual Silver at Shotgun World Championships, Double Trap Team Captures Gold; Junior Team Takes Home Silver
COLORADO SPRINGS, Col –-(AmmoLand.com)- Jeff Holguin (Yorba Linda, Calif.), a 2008 Olympian, earned the silver medal in the Double Trap event and also captured the gold in the team event, along with teammates Glenn Eller (Katy, Texas) and Josh Richmond (Hillsgrove, Pa.) at the 2009 ISSF Shotgun World Championships in Maribor, Slovenia. The Men’s Junior Double Trap team also took home hardware, claiming the silver in the team event.
Holguin, Eller and Richmond, who were competing on their third consecutive World Championship team together, all qualified for the final in the individual competition, with Holguin coming out with the highest finish. Holguin shot a qualification score of 144 out of 150 targets and hit 42 targets in the final to finish with 186 total targets, tied with China’s Wang Nan. Holguin secured the silver by winning the shoot-off 2-0, leaving Wang with the bronze. Holguin won his last international medal in 2008, when he captured the bronze at the ISSF World Cup in Kerrville, Texas. Italy’s Francesco D’Aniello, the 2008 Olympic silver medalist, earned his second World Championship title in a row today, finishing with 190 total hits.
Beijing Olympic gold medalist Eller, finished in fourth place just one target behind the medalists, with a total score of 185 hits. Eller shot a match score of 143 targets and 42 targets in the final. Richmond, who won the bronze at the last Shotgun World Championships in 2007, finished in fifth place with 183 +5 targets after outdoing India’s Ronjan Sodhi in a shoot-off.
Holguin, Eller and Richmond captured the team gold after firing a total of 430 targets, and also equaled the World Record
“The USA team is really strong. They are excellent shooters,” said D’Aniello after the match. “Facing the Olympic Champion Eller and his teammate Holguin in the final brought me back to the Olympic Final of Beijing. I faced the best shooters of the world, today. It has not been easy.”
The Italian team of D’Aniello, Claudio Franzoni and Daniele Di Spigno grabbed the team silver with an overall score of 421 targets, while the team bronze went to Great Britain (Steven Scott, Richard Faulds and Steven Walton) with 418 targets.
The Junior Double Trap team of Billy Crawford (Johnstown, Ohio), Derek Haldeman (Sunbury, Ohio) and Bryce Gearhart (Freeburg, Pa.) won the silver medal in the team event today with a total of 407 targets. The Russian Federation Junior team claimed the team gold with a total score of 413 targets and the bronze went to the team from Italy with a total of 402 hits.
Crawford earned the highest finish for the U.S. Junior Double Trap men individually today, finishing in fourth place after a three-way shoot-off with Italy’s Davide Gasparini and Alessandro Chianese for the silver and bronze. Sixteen-year-old Crawford, who was shooting in his first international match, missed first in the shoot-off, lading in fourth place with a total score of 139 +4 targets, while Gasparini outdid his teammate Chianese winning the silver with 139+7 targets,
Haldeman finished in eighth place with 136 targets and Gearhart shot 132 targets to take the 13th spot.
Approximately 600 shooters from 70 countries are competing at the 2009 ISSF Shotgun World Championships in Maribor, Slovenia. Thirty U.S. athletes, including 15 juniors, are in Maribor vying for a spot on the podium at the biggest shotgun event of the year. Competition concludes on Sunday, August 16 with the Men’s Skeet final.
For a complete competition schedule as well as updated, results, news, photos and video highlights of the 2009 Shotgun World Championships, please visit www.issf-sports.org.
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