Day 1 Report, 2020 USA Shooting Pistol (Air, Sport, Rapid), Olympic Trials Part 2

[USA Shooting]

Day 1 Report, 2020 USA Shooting Pistol (Air, Sport, Rapid), Olympic Trials Part 2
Ft. Benning, Georgia., February 24-March 1, 2020

Men’s Air Pistol and Women’s Sport Pistol Olympic Trials Part 2 competition that will determine the USA Shooting Olympic Team is underway. There are five total spots on the USA Shooting Pistol Team up for grabs. Four of the five spots will be announced on Wednesday, February 26th, with the remaining Men’s Rapid Fire spot announced on Sunday, March 1.

In the men’s air pistol, Nick Mowrer (Butte, Montana) is off to a hot start yet again with a score of 577 which extends his Olympic Trials lead out to a very large margin of 26 points. The Ohio State University collegiate competitor, Samuel Gens (Andover, Massachusetts) currently sits in 2nd place with 573. He’s followed closely by Keith Sanderson (Colorado Springs, Colorado) and Richard Gray (Fredericksburg, Virginia) both with 572 points.

Heading into day 2 there are six athletes within 11 points of second place, the final Olympic Quota position, making for an interesting and important day 2.

Alexis Lagan (Boulder City, Nevada) extends her Olympic Trials lead for the women with a score of 581 on day 1 and 1745 overall. Another Ohio State University competitor, Katelyn AbeIn (Douglasville, Georgia) is currently in 2nd place in the match for day 1, but following right behind her is Helen Oh (Walnut, California) and Kellie Foster (Colorado Springs, Colorado).

Heading into day 2 there are five athletes that are trying to catch Sandra Uptagrafft (Phenix City, Alabama) for the second quota spot, with the gap narrowing to just 12 points.

Both finals will take place tomorrow morning, and an Olympic Team will be named.

Results for Day 1 and start list for day 2 can be found here: https://www.usashooting.org/7-events/match-information

The competition is comprised of day 1 qualifying score and day 2 qualifying score plus finals points awarded to the top eight qualifiers for Air Pistol and top six qualifiers for Rapid Fire. This cumulative score will be combined with the participant's score from Trials Part I which took place back in December 2019 for Air Pistol and October 2019 for Rapid Fire. The combined score will determine the Olympic Team.

Two alternates in both Men’s Air Pistol and Women’s Sport Pistol will be named as well as one in Men’s Rapid Fire.