The US finally won their first medal of the ISSF World Cup competition in Rio on Tuesday and it was at the hands of an Olympian who will be competing there in four months. Walton Eller posted a joint third best qualifying score of 137 to reach the finals. In the semifinal he was a bit off at 25, tied for his worst round of the day, but won a shoot-off to get into the bronze medal match. There he beat Antonino Barilla of Italy 28-23 to win the medal. The 28 was the best score of anyone in the finals. Joshua Richmond nearly made it two Americans in the finals as he scored a 136 and tied for sixth. He lost the qualification shoot-off 11-10 to Andreas Loew of Germany who went on to lose the shoot-off Eller won to get into the bronze medal match. Derek Haldeman gave the US three in the top 25 with a 25th place finish .

The 50m men’s pistol event had two Americans thick in the race for the finals. Will Brown came up just short with a 557, two points back of the 559 of the final qualifier, and finished 12th. Brown did shoot a 98 in series 4 which was tied for the second best series of the day. Jay Shi did make the finals with a 560 after a strong 96 in series 6 put him into the top eight. Nickolaus Mowrer finished 44th with a 544. In the final Shi had one of the lower first stage scores at 51.6 (seventh of eight) and while he held off one opponent he was knocked out after two rounds and finished seventh.

With no events carrying over to Wednesday competition begins in the 50m prone rifle as the field is narrowed in an elimination round which all three Americans will be expected to survive. Matthew Emmons, David Higgins, and Michael McPhail will be competing. Both Higgins and McPhail are 2016 Olympians in this event. McPhail was fourth in Bangkok while Emmons was seventh. The entire women’s 25m pistol event will be held as well with Enkelejda Shehaj Bekurti competing for the US in the event where she will be an Olympian.