COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (May 28, 2017)
Olympic gold medalist Ginny Thrasher shot her way back onto the medal stand today in Pilsen, Czech Republic in the Women’s Three-Position Rifle event on the final day of the 27th Meeting of the Shooting Hopes junior event in Pilsen, Czech Republic.
Joining Thrasher in the Final was her West Virginia teammate Morgan Phillips (Salisbury, Maryland), who would finish seventh overall. Phillips had a strong final two days of competition, also adding a seventh-place finish in Prone as well. Emily Stith (Colorado Springs, Colorado) was 13th. The three of them combined to earn a team bronze medal in the process. Casey Lutz (Meridian, Idaho) was 26th.
Pistol shooter Jack Leverett III (Bainbridge, Georgia) also closed out his match with a bronze medal in the Men’s Sport Pistol event.
The U.S. concludes the match having earned five medals (two individual, three team) and eight top-9 finishes.
Thrasher (Springfield, Virginia), the 2017 Junior Olympic silver medalist in this event, earned her way into the Final by finishing fifth in Qualification with a mark of 581. She was sitting fifth after her kneeling stage in the Final, and fourth after the prone stage. She’d have to survive a shoot-off against Russian competitor Tatiana Kharkova to advance into second place, but just didn’t have enough to catch Czech shooter Sara Karasova.
The Men’s Sport Pistol event did not feature a Final, so Leverett’s score of 579 was what he used to earn the bronze medal. He was three points behind Poland’s Oscar Miliwek and five points behind winner Anhad Jawanda of India. Jack’s young brother, Henry, finished 20th while Charles Platt (Colorado Springs, Colorado) was 66th.
In the Women’s Sport Pistol event, Katelyn Abeln (Douglasville, Georgia) was the top U.S. finisher in 9th place, just 3 x's out of qualifying for the finals. Sarah Choe (Los Angeles, California) was 22nd.
Meeting of the Shooting Hopes Results: http://hopes.hyperlink.cz/
These same athletes will be part of the U.S. Team that will compete at the upcoming Junior World Championships, June 22-29 in Suhl, Germany.