The US has been lacking medals in this ISSF World Cup event with only one going into Saturday’s action. That number wouldn’t last long as the US won more medals on Saturday than they had in all the previous events combined.
In the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol Keith Sanderson proved the better of the two Americans in qualifying finishing with a 582 and advancing on inner 10s to reach the final. Emil Milev was a bit worse on the day and ended up with only 578 and eliminated in 18th place. Sanderson had the second lowest score of the final six after the first stage of the final but was strong to start the second stage and survived past three of those who were in front of him to end up with the silver medal.
It’s no surprise that the other US medal came in the women’s skeet where Amber English, Morgan Craft, and Kimberly Rhode were all in qualifying position after the first two rounds of shooting. Rhode shot a 25 and English a 24 to advance to the final while Craft’s 22 left her a point short of the top six and eliminated in 10th place. Craft had been the winner in the first World Cup event in Nicosia. Rhode had the top score in the semifinals at 14 to advance to the gold medal match while Craft finished in a 3-way tie with 13 and finished second in the shoot-off to end up in the bronze medal match. In the bronze medal match Craft lost to China’s Min Lu 13-12 and missed out on the medal opportunity. With gold on the line both Rhode and her opponent, Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit of Thailand had strong scores of 15 of a possible 16. The shoot-off would take a little while but eventually Jiewchaloemmit outlasted Rhode 8-7 and Rhode had to settle for the silver medal.
Men’s skeet qualifying continued on Friday with the third round of shooting. Vincent Hancock went perfect on Saturday and is now in a 3-way tie at the top with 74 points. Hayden Stewart and Frank Thompson each went for 24 and are part of the massive group from fourth to 17th with 72 points. They have a great chance to make the final but it will take really good scores on Sunday, probably 49 or a perfect 50. The final will be Sunday after the final two rounds of qualifying.
Finally in the 50m men’s 3 position rifle Matthew Emmons as expected was easily through the elimination round into the qualifying while Dempster Christenson and George Norton both had to sweat it out. Christenson did enough to move on finishing with an 1155 in his relay in 20th place. Norton was close, oh so close, but his 1149 only left him in a tie for the final qualifying spot and Jinseop Han of Korea had more inner 10’s (54 to 43) to advance. Christenson and Emmons will compete in qualifying and the final (should they advance to it) on Sunday as the entire competition in Rio wraps up.
Previous ISSF World Cup Coverage:
Day 5 Update
Day 6 Update
Day 7 Update
Day 8 Update
