CHANGWON, South Korea (September 7, 2018)
Michael McPhail won the bronze medal in Men’s 50m Three-Position Rifle today at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship at the Changwon International Shooting Range.
The medal is the first Men’s 50m Three-Position World Championship medal for the United States since Tom Tamas won silver in the event back in 1994. Along with his bronze-medal win, McPhail (Darlington, Wisconsin/U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit) also earned the United States’ first Olympic quota in Shooting for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. A quota spot is essentially a country’s ticket to compete in Olympic competition in a particular event. USA Shooting athletes winning Olympic quotas will still have to earn the right to compete in the Olympic Games separately.
“That feeling in the Final is something I haven’t felt in a long time,” said McPhail, beaming. He took a break from international competition following the 2016 ISSF World Cup Final where he won gold in Men’s Prone Rifle. The last international event where he shot Men’s Three-Position Rifle was the 2014 ISSF World Championship. “Being in that Final was kind of nice. It was nice to hear your name, your legs shaking, heart beating – it’s really one of the things that makes this sport fun. If you get into a Final and that’s not happening, it’s not a whole lot of fun anymore. For the first time in a long time, I got that feeling back.”
McPhail, 36, finished Qualification in the eighth and last position with his score of 1177 – a best for him in international competition. He was tied with Hungarian Istvan Peni in integer score as time ran out, so the tie for the last Finals position was broken on X count, or “inner
