The third ISSF World Cup Shotgun event of 2016 begins Friday in San Marino. Though both men’s and women’s trap begin on Friday the US does not have any entrants in the men’s event. The men’s trap is a weak event for the US and the only shotgun event where they did not qualify anyone for the Olympics. In the women’s trap event the US will have newly locked in 2016 Olympian Corey Cogdell competing. Cogdell has yet to make the six-woman final but was top 12 in both Nicosia and Rio. The entire women’s trap event (three rounds of shooting in qualifying and then the final) will take place on Friday.

Previous ISSF World Cup Coverage:
Munich Recap

The US now has Matthew Emmons to thank for both of their medals at the ISSF World Cup event in Munich. The 2016 Olympian won the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions for the second time this year with a dominating world record performance. Emmons qualified for the final by posting the top score in qualifying with an 1184, including a one-away-from-perfect prone score. Emmons again excelled in the prone shooting in the final as he took a 1.2 point lead to the standing rounds. With other shooters falling off the pace Emmons was in first by 3.3 when the cut to six occurred. Though no one ever got any closer Emmons continued his strong showing and finished strong with a final world record 464.1, breaking the old mark of 463.7 by Zicheng Hui. Emmons seems a good bet to medal in Rio as he has now finished in the top two in all three World Cup events so far this year and won the event twice. Jacob Buchanan finished 67th in qualifying with a 1154.

Finally in the women’s 10m air pistol Lydia Paterson was the top American and had her best finish of the year in 31st but her 380 was still five points off the top eight. Courtney Anthony finished 71st with a 373 and Enkelejda Shehaj Bekurti was 83rd with a 369.

The next ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Cup event will be in Baku, Azerbaijan from June 20th to the 29th. There is a Shotgun World Cup event starting next Wednesday in San Marino.

Previous ISSF World Cup Munich Coverage:
Preview
Saturday Update
Sunday Update
Monday Update
Tuesday Update

In the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions 2016 Olympian Virginia Thrasher nearly grabbed the second American medal of Munich but just missed out on it finishing fourth. Thrasher was into the final narrowly, qualifying in the final of the eight spots with a 583. She won a center 10 tiebreaker with 22 compared to 18 for Eva Roesken of Germany in ninth place. In the final Thrasher wasn’t the greatest in her kneeling and prone shots and was in sixth heading to the elimination standing shots. She was already 4.4 points behind third place so the pressure was on to try and make up ground quickly. She did move up into fourth at the cut to sixth but was still 2.6 points behind third. Needing some major help to finish any higher she got some, but still would have needed some nearly perfect shots and ended up in fourth. It was the second fourth place finish by an American this year and the young Thrasher is definitely a contender in Rio. Rachel Garner had a better qualifying round shoot than her elimination round as she scored a 578 and finished 34th. Hanna Carr on the other hand went backwards and shot a 570 and finished 64th.

In the men’s 10m air pistol competition Will Brown and Jay Shi both were not as close to the top eight finalists as they had hoped to be. Brown was the closer of the two with a 580 but finished four points behind the finalists in 20th. Shi finished in 35th and scored a 577. Nickolaus Mowrer had a shot at being the top American but after being in the 96-98 range in the first five series he shot a 91 to wrap things up with a 576, 41st best.

In the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions 2016 Olympian Matthew Emmons was one of the best of the day scoring an 1183, second best in his relay and overall. Jacob Buchanan also advanced after shooting a 1155 and finishing 31st in his relay. William Shaner was eliminated after finishing 42nd with an 1143 in his relay. Wednesday will be the qualifying round and final for the top eight.

The final event to begin in Munich will be the women’s 10m air pistol.

Previous ISSF World Cup Munich Coverage:
Preview
Saturday Update
Sunday Update
Monday Update

The US won their first medal of Munich on Monday and it wasn’t even from an Olympian in the event. The medal cam in the men’s 50m rifle prone thanks to the non-Olympian (at least in this event) Matthew Emmons. In the qualification round Emmons scored a 631.8, second best of the day, to qualify for the final. 2016 Olympian Michael McPhail nearly made it two in the final eight from the US with a 626.7, but that left him 13th and 0.7 behind the eighth place finisher. Emmons was fourth in the first stage of the final but moved into third after the fourth round of the second stage. Emmons had a lot of work to do to move into the top two and was eventually eliminated in third place, grabbing the bronze. The medal was the first by the US in the event in 2016 though Emmons made it fourth finalists and five top ten finishers.

In the 25m rapid fire pistol event 2016 Olympian Emil Milev improved on his 288 from the first day but only by a single point and moved up from 22nd to 20th, still finishing five points behind the top six final qualifiers with a 577. Alexander Chichkov also improved his score by a single point but jumped to 31st with a 571 total.

In the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions 2016 Olympian Virginia Thrasher was the best of the three Americans as all three qualified for the qualifying round. Thrasher shot a 577 to finish 12th in her relay. Not far behind her was fellow American Hanna Carr who shot a 574 and was 26th. Cutting it closest on qualification was Rachel Garner who scored a 571 and was second in the other elimination relay. Both Carr and Garner are participating in their first World Cup event of the year. On Tuesday the three Americans will compete in qualifying and attempt to reach the final which will be held later in the day.

Starting Tuesday, and wrapping up later in the day, will be the men’s 10m air pistol competition. Will Brown headlines the US athletes in the field. Brown has been fantastic at the world level so far in 2016 with a silver in Bangkok and a fifth place finish in Rio.

Also beginning will be the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions. 2016 Olympian Emmons, already with the bronze here in 50m prone, is a favorite to medal after a gold in Bangkok and a silver in Rio. There will only be a elimination relay on Tuesday.

Previous ISSF World Cup Munich Coverage:
Preview
Saturday Update
Sunday Update

No Americans advanced to the finals on Sunday but the best finish of the day for the US came in the men’s 50m pistol where 2016 Olympian Will Brown came close to qualifying for the final posting a 559, one off the final qualifier. Brown also would not have won the center 10’s tiebreaker even if had scored one point higher and finished 16th. It’s the third straight top 16 finish this year for Brown who will certainly be in contention to medal in Rio if he has a strong event. 2016 Olympian Jay Shi was 31st with a 554. His middle four series were very strong but he started with an 89 and ended with an 88 which doomed his chances. Nickolaus Mowrer finished 42nd with a 547.

In the 25m women’s pistol 2016 Olympian Enkelejda Shehu shot a 286 in the rapid fire portion to finish with a combined 570, 12 behind the last final qualifier and in 47th place. Shehu was 45th in Rio and would need to improve a lot on those performances to contend in the Olympics.

In the 25m rapid fire pistol event 2016 Olympian Emil Milev was the top American on Sunday in the first half of the qualification round but his 288 was only good enough for 22nd and he faces a four point deficit on the top eight going into the second day. Alexander Chichkov is in 38th after shooting a 285. Qualification warps up tomorrow with the finals later in the day.

Beginning on Monday will be the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions Virginia Thrasher is a 2016 Olympian in the event and finished tenth in Rio when she competed in the event earlier in the year. There will only be an elimination round on Sunday to narrow the field to 70 shooters for Monday’s qualifying round.

Previous ISSF World Cup Munich Coverage:
Preview
Saturday Update