Leaders emerged in all four competitions after the first day of the Air Shooting Olympic Trials but none stood out more than Lydia Paterson in women’s air pistol. Paterson dominated the field shooting a 387, nine better than anyone else, and then went on to win the final to end the day up 10 points on Courtney Anthony. Alexis Lagan is 15 points back in third.
The closest competition comes in the men’s air pistol where Will Brown had the top score in qualifying with a 574 but came in third in the final and only leads James Hall and Jason Turner by two points. Alexander Chichkov is well within striking range three points back as is Nickolaus Mowrer who is four back.
In the women’s air rifle Sarah Scherer was the only one of the three Americans with top 15 world cup finishes this year to really shine on day one. Scherer had the top qualifying score of 417.3 and finished second in the final to hold a 2.9 point lead. Sarah Beard was within 1.5 of Scherer in qualifying but finished last in the final and is over seven points back. Emily Holsopple was further back than Beard in qualifying and her second to last place finish in the final has her over eight points back. Scherer does have some competition however from Rhiann Travis, who is in second after winning the final, Amy Sowash, who was third in the final after a solid qualifying round, and Elizabeth Gratz, who sits 4.9 points back in fourth.
In the men’s rifle competition, where two spots are up for grabs, Lucas Kozeniesky posted the top qualifying score of 628.5 and finished third in the final to finish in front after the first day by 3.4 points. Daniel Lowe is in second after posting the second best qualifying score and finishing fourth in the final. Ivan Roe won the final to make up for a weaker qualifying score and is in third just 0.3 behind the second qualifying spot. Matthew Rawlings makes it one more in contention as he sits 4.9 behind Lowe in fourth place. Dempster Christenson had a disappointing day with a qualifying score that missed out on the final by 0.8 and he is now 12.5 points out of qualifying position, a real uphill challenge.
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