COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (June 7, 2018)
More than 200 Rifle and Pistol athletes from around the country will make their annual pilgrimage to the home of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit this weekend as the week-long USA Shooting National Championships for Rifle and Pistol kick off Sunday in Fort Benning, Georgia.
National titles and potential slots on the National/National Junior/National Paralympic Teams will be up for grabs as athletes compete across the individual Olympic and Paralympic events in Rifle and Pistol disciplines, as well as Men’s and Women’s 50m Prone Rifle, Men’s 25m Center Fire and Standard Pistol and Men’s 50m Free Pistol. This match will also serve as the selection match for the athletes who will compete in the 2018 International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship this summer in these non-Olympic events. World Championship team athletes in the 300m Rifle events were selected during the Fall Selection Match last year.
Most of the athletes who’ve already earned slots on the World Championship Team will be looking to Nationals as a tune-up prior to the World Championships August 31 – September 15 in Changwon, South Korea. Learn more about the athletes who qualified for the team in Smallbore[1] and Airgun[2].
Among the notable Rifle athletes who will be competing in Fort Benning are three-time Olympic medalist Matt Emmons (Browns Mills, New Jersey), 2016 Olympic gold medalist Ginny Thrasher and (Springfield, Virginia) two-time Olympian Michael McPhail (U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit/Darlington, Wisconsin).
Emmons and Thrasher posted the top finishes for American Rifle athletes this year on the ISSF circuit. Emmons, who just missed the podium in fourth place in Men’s Three-Position Rifle at the World Cup in Changwon, posted an impressive Qualification score
