COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (April 9, 2019)
The first medals of the National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships (NJOSC) for Rifle and Pistol were awarded today in the Men’s Three-Position Rifle competition at the Olympic Shooting Center in Colorado Springs.
Winning the gold medal today was defending NJOSC champion and Air Force Academy freshman Peter Fiori, Jr. (Lebanon, New Jersey). As this is a selection match for the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup in Germany this summer, all athletes shot two Qualification matches and were selected for the Final based on cumulative points. Additional points (eight for first, seven for second and so on) were awarded based on finish in the Final. By a dominating 14-point margin, Fiori had already locked down the gold, even before the Finals. During his second day of Qualification, Fiori shot a score of 1178 – a world-class score at the Open (adult) level and a new National Junior Record to give him the points for the win.
“My second day of Qualification was 23-points higher than the first!” said Fiori. “I have no idea what was working. I had a test at 6:30 in the morning that day and was really tired, and I just kind of showed up to the match and it just worked! I don’t know. It’s a personal best too, so maybe I need to take more tests at 6:30 in the morning?” Fiori joked.
Also sealing the silver medal before the Final was Matthew Sanchez (Tampa, Florida) with a two-day cumulative score of 2325. Sanchez will leave for China next week to compete in the ISSF World Cup in Beijing.
The bronze medal was determined by finish in today’s final and went to University of Alaska Fairbanks freshman Kellen McAferty (Little Rock, Washington), who won the Final. The top-three overall finishers not only won medals, but appointments to the National Junior Team, along with their berths at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Germany this summer.
Winning the J2 (age 15-17) classification awards were Scott Rockett (Cary, North Carolina) for gold, Kyle Kutz (Darien, Connecticut) for silver and Philip Becker (Granbury, Texas) for bronze.
In the J3 (ages 14 and younger) category, Braden Peiser (San Angelo, Texas) won gold, Griffin Lake (Emmaus, Pennsylvania) won silver and Nathan Engman (Albertville, Minnesota) won bronze.
The 61 athletes in Men’s Three-Position rifle won their chance to compete at NJOSC due to their finishes at the state-level Junior Olympic matches. Overall, 607 athletes from 48 states will compete in Rifle, Pistol and Paralympic events throughout the three-week NJOSC. The NJOSC features the top 34 percent of all competitors in 2019 and will feature invitees that either won their state championship or were selected based on a score they attained. The competitors range in age from nine to 20 years old.
The Men’s Air Rifle competition starts tomorrow with Finals taking place Thursday. Watch live targets throughout NJOSC: results.megalink.no/#!/usa-shooting.
Complete results start lists and more information about the NJOSC program: http://www.usashooting.org/7-events/njosc/njoscrifle.
View and download images from the Men’s Three-Position Rifle competition from NJOSC: https://flic.kr/s/aHskQkuN3D.