COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (July 6, 2019)
Katie Jacob is making her last year as a junior competitor count as she put fourth another fine showing at the 2019 World Championships Saturday, earning an individual silver medal and leading her team to a bronze medal in the process.
No stranger to top-notch World Championship performances, today’s silver medal from Lonato, Italy, marks the fourth straight top-seven finish and her third Finals appearance in four tries.
Jacob made the Final by finishing first with a Qualification score of 117. 2018 World Champs bronze medalist and 2017 World Champs silver medalist Austen Smith (Keller, Texas) could not make it three-straight podiums this year as she shot 114 to miss the Final by one target. Competing in her first international event, Jasmine Otis (Wasilla, Alaska) connected on 98 targets to finish 27th.
After 42 of the 60 available targets in the Final, Jacob had dug a significant hole after missing nine targets compared to Russia’s Zilia Batyrshina just three misses. But that’s when Jacob would turn it on and focus in to not miss one single target over the next 18 shots and really ratchet up the pressure on her Russian foe. It worked as Batyrshina missed five of her final 12 shots to shrink the lead to just one target, with just four targets remaining. But the Russian in pursuit of her first international medal was perfect when she needed to be in the final two pairs to squeak out a win against the hard-charging Jacob.
The medal by Jacob keeps an impressive streak alive dating back to 2005 with the U.S. Junior Women’s Skeet program producing at least one medalist at each of the 11 World Championships since, including 14 medalists.
The U.S. Men’s Skeet team athletes were knocking on the door of two Finals appearances but would eventually fall just one target short with 123/125 earning spots in the Final. The U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit soldier-athletes of Phillip Jungman (Caldwell, Texas) and Christian Elliott (Greenville, Indiana) made a run for it, each scoring 122 to fall just shy of the high mark needed. Despite a Final round 25 and three of five perfect rounds overall, Jungman would have to settle for 10th-place after countback while Elliott would land in 14th-position after two perfect rounds and three rounds of 24, including each of his rounds Saturday. Robert Kyle Johnson (Phoenix, Arizona) would score 115 to finish 71st and the team would finish ninth overall, but just two targets from a potential podium spot with the Italian’s grabbing bronze after a 361 compared to Team USA’s 359.
The Mixed Team Skeet event will be contested Sunday followed by Women’s Skeet and Junior Men’s Skeet set to get underway Tuesday.
RESULTS: http://bit.ly/2RTsIDh