IPC World Cup USA Wraps in Fort Benning
OutdoorHub 06.09.14
The last day of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Cup USA came to a close today at the home of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) with four U.S. athletes qualifying for Finals in the three events contested.
The highest U.S. finish today came from Michael Tagliapietra (Fon du Lac, Wisconsin) who finished in sixth place in P4 (Mixed 50m Pistol SH1). He and U.S. teammate Shaun Tichenor (Brainerd, Minnesota/USAMU, pictured) both qualified for the P4 Final, with Tichenor finishing in eighth place. Tichenor’s Finals appearances in P4 and P1 (Men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1) are the first of his career.
The gold medal in P4 went to Ganbaatar Zandraa of Mongolia. The silver medal was won by Gyula Guriasatti of Hungary and bronze by Hakan Skold of Sweden.
In R5 (Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH2), Jazmin Almlie-Ryan (Houston, Texas) finished in seventh place, but also earned a score in Qualification strong enough to qualify her for the IPC World Championships next month in the R5 event.
Barbaro Ponce (Atlanta, Ga.,) finished in 11th place and Mariah Beckham (Daleville, Ga.) finished in 12th. Winning gold in R5 was James Bevis of Great Britain, followed by Mark Bradley and Jason Maroney of Australia taking silver and bronze.
John Joss (Corsicana, Texas/USAMU) finished in eighth place in the R6 (Mixed 50m Rifle Prone SH1) event. USAMU teammate Josh Budd (Fort Benning, Ga.) and Nick Beach (Dresden, Ohio) finished in 15th and 17th respectively.
Winning gold in R6 was Matt Skellhon of Great Britain. The silver medal went to Ben Jesson of Great Britain and bronze to Veronika Vadivacova of Slovakia.
Though the U.S. may have only claimed one medal during this World Cup (a team bronze in R3 10m Air Rifle Prone), World Cup USA may have marked a significant step in growth of the Paralympic shooting program in the United States. Throughout the competition, 21 IPC records were broken and one tied with Americans breaking nine American records.
The next event on the IPC Shooting calendar is 40 days away when the IPC World Championships start in Suhl, Germany, July 18 – 26.
For complete results and live scoring from the IPC World Cup in Fort Benning, Georgia, please click here: http://results.sius.com/(X(1)S(2ec2m0wfcetbqyomzkxqx5jm))/Events.aspx?Championship=IPCWCFortBenning201420140603FortBenningUSA.
