COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (December 5, 2018)
The Smallbore Rifle Selection Match concluded two rounds of Qualification and Finals today at the Olympic Shooting Center with world-class scores and a few surprises.
This match 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 has valuable Olympic quotas 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 a specific event, not necessarily the athlete. Athletes will earn Olympic Team slots via a trials system established by USA Shooting.
Sarah Beard (Danville, Indiana/U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit) shot a world-class score of 1185 in Women’s Three-Position Rifle on her first day of Qualification – five points higher than the world record and the highest of anyone in the entire Selection Match. With a 16-point gap between her and the next closest competitor on Day One, Beard easily walked away with the win even before the Final started as she amassed a 32-point lead with her two days of Qualification plus points earned from her Finals finish. (Points were awarded in Finals based on finish – eight for first, seven for second and so on). Just a couple weeks ago, Beard had also won gold and an Olympic quota for the United States in Women’s Three-Position Rifle at the Championship of the Americas in Guadalajara, Mexico. 2016 Olympic gold medalist Ginny Thrasher (Springfield, Virginia) finished in second place with a cumulative score of 2332 and Alison Weisz (Belgrade, Montana) finished in third place with the same
