COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (June 20, 2018)
More than 225 young Shotgun athletes have made their way to Colorado Springs to compete in the annual National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships (NJOSC). The annual celebration of Junior Shotgun talent begins tomorrow and runs through June 29 at the International Shooting Park just south of the city at Fort Carson.
On the line for these athletes are NJOSC medals and potential invitations to the National Junior Team. For a handful of athletes, this year’s NJOSC will also serve as a tune-up prior to the Shotgun Selection Match in late July, as well as the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship later in August in Changwon, South Korea. Junior Shotgun athletes earned their slots on the team for the World Championship during the Spring Selection match in March.
The competition begins with Men’s and Women’s Trap running through Tuesday, and Men’s and Women’s Skeet rounding out the week Wednesday through Friday. A preview of the Skeet competition will be released Tuesday. To qualify for NJOSC, Trap athletes had to shoot at least an 80/125 targets at a state Junior Olympic competition.
In the Men's Trap competition, last year’s NJOSC champion Dale Royer (Jackson, Montana) returns to defend his title. In his last year of Junior eligibility, Royer is not wasting his final year of youth competition, finishing atop the Junior field in the World Championship selection process and winning gold last month at the Grand Prix in Porpetto, Italy. He’s joined by the defending NJOSC silver medalist Mick Wertz (Muncy, Pennsylvania), who also won an ISSF Trap Mixed Team World Cup medal with Ashley Carroll in Guadalajara, Mexico in March. Their World Championship teammate Logan Lucas (Pacific, Missouri) will also compete. Also keep
