By Brittany Nelson, USAS Public Relations & Communications Manager
The men’s and women’s skeet teams with their medals. Top L to R: Dustan Taylor, Christian Elliot, Vincent Hancock, and coach Jay Waldron. Bottom L to R: Dania Vizzi, Sam Simonton, and Austen Smith. Courtesy photo.
COLO SPRGS, CO (Oct. 13, 2022) – USA Shooting’s skeet athletes close out the 2022 Shotgun World Championships in Osijek, Croatia, with four more titles.
Vincent Hancock, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and four-time World Champion, brought home a silver medal in Men’s Individual Skeet, missing only one target in the final to be bested by Azmy Mehelba of Egypt. Hancock’s performance earned the USA an Olympic Quota for Paris 2024.
Hancock was up on the podium again with Dustan Taylor and Christian Elliot, both soldiers in the Army Marksmanship Unit, after the trio won silver in the Men’s Skeet Team event. The men lost to Italy in the gold medal match.
Sam Simonton, also a solider with the Army Marksmanship Unit, earned third place in Women’s Individual Skeet by beating Slovakia in the bronze medal match. Simonton also earned the U.S. an Olympic Quota for Paris 2024.
Simonton went on to help Austen Smith, from Texas, and Dania Vizzi, of Florida, claim the Women’s Skeet Team World Championship title. The trio earned gold after beating Italy in the final face off with a shutout performance.
Smith, Vizzi, and Simonton are no strangers to the podium. The three of them were medalists together at a national shotgun competition four years ago.
Smith, a 2020 Olympian, placed sixth overall in Women’s Individual Skeet and Elliot, a 2019 World Championship silver medalist, placed fifth in Men’s Individual Skeet.
The Junior and Open Shotgun Teams won a total of nine medals and three Olympic quotas for Paris 2024 while competing against top-tier athletes in Croatia.
Up next for the shotgun team is the Championships of the Americas in Lima, Peru, Nov. 4-14.
The USA Pistol and Rifle teams will begin competition at the ISSF World Championships in Cairo, Egypt, Oct 13-27.
Follow @USAShooting on social media for updates. Visit www.ISSF-Sports.org for all official results.
USA Shooting wants to share these victories with our loyal sponsors and donors. Thanks to their generosity, our team is able to represent and bring home medals for the United States of America.