COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (September 26, 2018)
The USA Shooting Team picked up its second medal of the World Shooting Para Sport (WSPS) World Cup in Chateauroux, France today when John Joss (Corsicana, Texas/U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit) won silver in the R6 (Mixed 50m Rifle Prone SH1) event.
In addition to his silver-medal win, Joss also earned the United States its first Paralympic quota for 2020. A Paralympic quota is essentially a country’s ticket to compete in a specific event in the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
“My goal was the quota and I was determined to earn it,” said Joss. “I had been shooting very well in difficult conditions and the first two days of training were abysmal – wind would keep switching directions and was very difficult to read. Today was a little less windy.”
Joss entered the Final with the lowest Qualification score of 616.5. Once in the Final, Joss found himself in second place after the first series of five shots and stayed in the second position until the end with his score of 245.5, unable to catch gold medalist Juan Antonio Saavedra Reinaldo of Spain who led from the start of the Final. Matt Skelhon of Great Britain won the bronze medal.
Also competing in R6 was Joss’ Army teammate Kevin Nguyen (Westminster, California/USAMU) who finished in 12th place with a score of 613.7. Taylor Farmer (Castalia, Ohio), who won bronze yesterday in R2 (Women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1), finished in 43rd place with a score of 599.0.
2016 Paralympic bronze medalist McKenna Dahl (Arlington, Washington) finished in 13th place in R4 (Mixed 10m Air Rifle Standing SH2) with a score of 624.4.
