COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (November 28, 2018)
After two days of intense competition plus Finals today, the champions of the Smallbore (.22) Pistol Selection Match have been crowned in Women’s Sport Pistol, Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol and P3 (Mixed 25m Pistol SH1) at the Olympic Shooting Center in Colorado Springs.
Winning the Women’s Sport Pistol competition even before today’s Final with her cumulative score of 1167 was recent Championship of the Americas gold medalist Alexis Lagan (Boulder City, Nevada). Finishing in second place with a cumulative score of 1153 was 2012 Olympian Sandra Uptagrafft (Phenix City, Alabama) and taking bronze was 2018 World Championship Junior silver medalist Katelyn Abeln (Douglasville, Georgia) with a score of 1144.
In Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol, Jack Leverett III (Bainbridge, Georgia) also had his win sealed up before the Final with his dominating cumulative score of 1155. Henry Leverett (Bainbridge, Georgia) took silver with his score of 1141 and Ryan Yi (Diamond Bar, California) won bronze with a score of 1095. Cumulative scores for these events were based on two days of Qualification plus points earned by position in the Final (Eight points for first, seven for second and so on).
This event served as the selection match for the upcoming International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup next year in New Delhi, India. The 2019 World Cup season is of particular importance as each stop will have valuable Olympic quota places available to the top finishers. An Olympic quota is essentially a country’s ticket to participate in a specific event in the 2020 Olympic Games. Earning an Olympic quota in competition ensures the country a spot in that particular event, not necessarily the athlete. Athletes will earn Olympic Team slots via a trials system established by USA Shooting.
Paralympic athletes also competed at this match as it served as the selection matches for the World Shooting Para Sport (WSPS, formerly IPC) World Cup in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates early next year and Szczecin (Poland) Grand Prix, as well as part of the selection process for the World Cup in Osijek, Croatia. The World Cup in Al Ain will have 2020 Paralympic Games qualification slots available for top-finishing athletes (similar to quotas in the Olympic Games).
The top finisher in P3 (Mixed 25m Pistol SH1) was Marco DeLaRosa (San Antonio, Texas) with a score of 1080. Michael Tagliapietra (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin) won the silver medal with a score of 1077 and Tricia Downing (Denver, Colorado) won bronze with a score of 1055. These three athletes were all a part of the 2016 Paralympic Games Team and their scores were based only on two days of Qualification.
Complete Results from the Smallbore Pistol Selection Match