USA Shooting’s Junior Team Wins Bronze in Men’s Skeet
OutdoorHub 09.19.13
The 2013 ISSF Shotgun World Championship continued today at the Captain FAP Josè Quinones Shooting Range in Lima, Peru with the conclusion of the Men’s Skeet competition.
The lone U.S. medal of the day came from the junior team of Phillip Jungman (Caldwell, Texas, right), Nick Boerboon (Prior Lake, Minn.) and Luis “Taz” Gloria (Tucson, Ariz.) who finished third with their combined score of 345. Italy placed first in the team event and the Czech Republic placed second.
The highest individual finish from the U.S. team also came from Junior National Team member Jungman who shot 118 of 125 for ninth place of 36 competitors. Jungman was the first competitor eliminated in a four-way shoot off to qualify for the finals.
Boerboon shot 116 to finish in 12th place and Gloria shot 111 to finish in 19th place.
The gold medal went to Domenico Simeone of Italy. The silver medal went to Nicolas Pacheco Espinosa of Peru and bronze to Tammaro Cassandro of Italy.
Top junior performances at the World Championships have been a staple of the U.S. Team. Since 2010, U.S. junior teams competing at World Championships have been supported with the generous donations of the Dallas Safari Club (DSC). The DSC has provided USA Shooting with grant support for international competitions, generally to support our junior teams to World Championships (with the exception of 2012 where the grant monies went to the pre-Olympic training camp). This year, DSC approved a grant of $30,000 to support USA Shooting’s Junior Shotgun Team in Peru. The additional support has paid off with junior team athletes accounting for eight individual and eight team medals during that time along with 20 top-10 finishes.
Two-time World and Olympic Champion Vincent Hancock (Eatonton, Ga.) would not claim a third World Championship title today in Peru. In Tuesday’s three qualifying rounds, Hancock missed four targets over the three rounds to close the day in 31st place. Even though he shot a straight 50 shots in today’s two rounds for a final qualifying score of 121 targets, it wasn’t enough for Hancock who finished in 10th place in the field of 75 competitors.
Hancock’s London Olympic teammate Frank Thompson (Alliance, Neb.) appeared to be in a position to medal, having only missed two targets in his first three rounds. In today’s final two rounds, he missed two more targets for 121 and finished in 13th place.
In his Open Division debut, T.J. Bayer (College Station, Texas) shot 115 targets to finish in 44th place.
As a team, Hancock, Thompson and Bayer finished in fifth place.
The gold medal in the Open Division went to Tomas Nydrle of the Czech Republic, silver to Giancarlo Tazza of Italy and bronze to Jesper Hansen of Denmark.
Complete results from this event can be found here.
A loaded Men’s Double Trap team is anxious to get things started on Friday. The names representing Team USA in Lima are familiar and stout. Glenn Eller, the 2008 Olympic gold medalist, has been a proven commodity the past dozen years in this event having amassed three individual World Champs medals including one of each color. In addition, he’s been a part of four World Championship Team titles in the event and another bronze medal. He’s earned 14 World Cup medals throughout is illustrious career. As good as these stats are, Eller knows he needs an update to his career portfolio as he’s only earned one of those medals (2011 World Champs Bronze) since his gold-medal triumph at the Beijing Olympic Games.
The typical U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) double trap flavor exists as well with 2008 Olympian and fourth-place finisher Jeff Holguin (Yorba Linda, Calif.) and Derek Haldeman (Sunbury, Ohio) also competing. Holguin was runner-up at the recent USA Shooting National Championships and finished fourth in the World Cup Granada earlier this summer. Missing is 2012 Olympian and 2010 World Champion Josh Richmond (Hillsgrove, Pa.), a seven-time World Champs team member. He finished two targets back of third-place finisher and USAMU teammate Holguin.
Since the start of 2000, Team USA has earned six team medals including five gold & one bronze with Eller and Holguin having been a part of every one of them including four as teammates. U.S. double trap shooters have earned six individual medals since 2000 with Eller earning three of them including 1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze. Holguin earned a silver medal in 2009.
The Junior squad is just as formidable lead by reigning Junior World Champion Billy Crawford (Johnstown, Ohio), 2013 World Cup Acapulco Bronze medalist Ian Rupert (Muncy, Pa.) and Christian Wilkoski (Centerburg, Ohio). U.S. junior teams aren’t short on expectations given a U.S. Men’s Jr. Double Trap team has earned a medal in every World Championship event since 1993, or 15 of the 16 World Championships to date including three gold, seven silver, five bronze. Team USA has earned five Junior World Individual Medals including four Junior World Champions since 2001.
For complete coverage of the 2013 World Clay Target Championships be sure to find USA Shooting on Twitter and/or Facebook. You can also follow the coverage of the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) on their webpage at: http://www.issf-sports.org/
