Colorado Springs, CO -(AmmoLand.com)- The international spotlight gets turned on to some of the top Junior competitors in the world this week at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior Cup, which begins Saturday in Suhl, Germany.
Twenty members of the USA Shooting National Junior Team, including Junior World Champion Dania Vizzi (right) and Junior World Bronze Medalist Phillip Jungman (left), will compete looking to bring home gold as well as Minimum Qualifying Scores (MQS) for the Rio 2016 qualification process.
This is the second ISSF Junior World Cup after the ISSF decided to move forward with the event in 2013. Open to all junior competitors age 20 or younger during the competition year, the first all-discipline event (Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun) in 2014 featured 25 American athletes. This year’s event is expected to draw 500 athletes from more than 40 countries.
The rifle team will be led by recent Junior Olympic champions William Anti (Colorado Springs, Colorado), the Air rifle gold medalist, and Jacob Buchanan (Spring, Texas), the Three-Position Smallbore (.22 caliber) and Prone gold medalist. Joining Anti and Buchanan will be Ben Estes (Ozark, Missouri), who placed second in Three-Position.
In the Women’s events, Elizabeth Gratz (Sigel, Illinois) looks to continue her increasing pace towards making an international final after shooting an MQS score of 581 at the ISSF World Cup in Changwon. The rifle roster also includes 2015 NCAA Smallbore Rifle champ Rachel Martin (Peralta, New Mexico), along with 17-year-old Rhiann Travis (Poolville, Texas) making her international debut after claiming the silver medal in Air Rifle at the Junior Olympics.
Vizzi (Odessa, Florida) and Jungman (Caldwell, Texas) highlight a potent shotgun squad ready to duplicate or improve upon a seven-medal performance laid down by last year’s team. Vizzi is the reigning Junior World Champion and had a big showing at the recently completed USA Shooting National Championships where she won a Junior National title and finished third in the Open division. Jungman was a bronze medalist at last year’s World Championships and earned his second straight Junior National Championship last week. Another shotgun power to look out for is Dale Royer (Jackson, Montana), who just won the Junior Men’s Double Trap title at the National Championships last week, as well as bronze in the Open division.
Other Junior World Team members competing include: Christian Elliott (Greenwood, Indiana), the runner-up to Jungman for the Junior National Championship; Ryne Barfield (Poulan, Georgia), also a junior runner-up in trap; Samantha Smith (Spring Hill, Tennessee), Corey Hutto(Cornersville, Tennessee) and Vizzi’s teammate on the World Championship gold-medal winning Junior Women’s Skeet Team, Sydney Carson (North Liberty, Indiana).
Coaches will include Pete Durben for Rifle along with Chad Whittenburg and Hank Garvey in Shotgun.
Schedule:
- Saturday, June 27 – Prone Rifle; Double Trap
- Sunday, June 28 – Women’s 3P Rifle
- Monday, June 29 – Air Rifle; Trap & Skeet Day 1
- Tuesday, June 30 – Men’s 3P Rifle; Women’s Trap & Skeet Day 2 + Final; Men’s Trap & Skeet Day 2
- Wednesday, July 1 – Men’s Trap & Skeet Day 3 + Final; Air Rifle Mixed Team event
Results, videos, photos and news about the event will be published on the ISSF website.
About ELEY
ELEY is a Proud Sponsor of the USA Shooting Rifle and Pistol Teams: ELEY Limited, manufacturer of the world’s most consistently accurate rimfire ammunition, has been the Official Sponsor and Official Supplier of .22 rimfire ammunition of the USA Shooting rifle and pistol teams since 2000.
For more information on ELEY and their products, please visit www.eley.co.uk.
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.
Check us out on the web at usashooting.org and on Twitter at twitter.com/USAShooting.