MOSCOW –-(Ammoland.com)- The USA Shooting Team picked up another medal at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship for Shotgun in Moscow, Russia when the Junior Men’s Trap Team won a bronze medal in the Team event.
Ryne Barfield, Dale Royer and Logan Mountain earned the medal with their combined, individual finishes. This bronze medal was a first for a U.S. Junior Men’s Trap Team since the 2010 World Championship.
En route to the team bronze, Barfield (Poulan, Georgia, pictured below) earned a slot in the Junior Men’s Trap Final with 117/125 hits. Once in the Final, he only hit 18/25 targets presented and was eliminated in sixth place. This Final was Barfield’s first in international competition.
“I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I was going to be,” said Barfield. “I was probably more excited than anything. It’s a Final so you’ve got to be on your A-game; you can’t screw it up. But this it didn’t quite play out the way I wanted it to. Hey, it was my first one. I can still say I’m one of the top six Juniors in the world and it’s definitely something I’ll remember.”
Royer (Jackson, Montana) was just one hit shy of a potential slot in the Final as well as he finished in seventh place with 116 hits. Mountain (Palmdale, California) finished in 24th place with 110 hits.
Also earning a slot in a Trap Final for the first time in international competition was former Double Trap specialist Derek Haldeman (U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit/Sunbury, Ohio).
Haldeman (pictured right), who gave up Double Trap and switched to Trap the moment he learned his specialty event was being eliminated from the Olympic program, hit 121/125 targets over three days of Qualification, forcing him into a seven-way shootoff for four slots in the Final. Once in the Final, Haldeman finished in fifth place, hitting 21/30 targets.
“The first five in the Final were really good; felt smooth,” said Haldeman. “I was more nervous for my Qualification today than anything. Obviously, I was a little tighter than I thought. There were nerves; moving quicker than I thought I was, and the coaches were trying to get my attention; telling me to smooth out and slow down, but it was just too late by the time I figured it out. Obviously, I wanted to win, but I learned a lot at this match.”
Haldeman’s fifth-place finish today is the highest for the U.S. in this event at the World Championship since 2006 when Bret Erickson won bronze.
Haldeman also won the Men’s Trap title this year at the USA Shooting National Championship for Shotgun. He made his international debut in Trap in May at the ISSF World Cup in Larnaka, Cyprus where he finished in 50th place.
Also in the Men’s Trap competition for the U.S. were Jake Wallace (Castaic, California) who finished in 52nd place (115 hits) and Roe Reynolds (Quitman, Arkansas) who finished in 111th place with 107 hits.
Mixed Team Trap competition starts tomorrow with the U.S. fielding two teams: Haldeman/Ashely Carroll (Solvang, California) and Wallace/Caitlin Weinheimer (Port Lavaca, Texas). Each team will shoot two rounds with Finals starting at 4:30pm in Moscow. (Moscow is seven hours ahead of Eastern Time). Carroll was the top finisher for the U.S. in Women’s Trap at this World Championship when she finished in sixth place. Read yesterday’s story about Women’s Trap: https://www.usashooting.org/news/2017/9/2/977-us-trap-women-bring-home-team-gold-bronze-from-world-championship.
640 athletes from 76 countries are competing at this World Championship at the Foxlodge Shooting Range in the Moscow Region through September 10. For more information, visit the World Championship website: https://www.wch2017russia.org/en/ and follow along with results on the ISSF website: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue.ashx?cshipid=1911.
About USA Shooting:
USA Shooting, a 501c3 non-profit corporation, was chartered by the United States Olympic Committee as the National Governing Body for the sport of shooting in April 1995. USA Shooting’s mission is to prepare American athletes to win Olympic medals, promote the shooting sports throughout the U.S. and govern the conduct of international shooting in the country.
For more information, check them out on the website and on Twitter.