COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -(Ammoland.com)- The annual, three-day match known as the Winter Airgun Championships at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado completed its penultimate day with several repeat winners, as well as a youngster who surged ahead of National Team members her first Open title.
Fifteen-year-old Sarah Choe (Los Angeles, California, pictured) won the Women’s Air Pistol title, defeating National Champion Alexis Lagan (Las Vegas), who finished in second place once again.
Though Choe had the lowest Qualification score of those athletes who qualified for the Final, the Junior National Champion won the event today by a commanding 4.4 points in today’s Final.
Yesterday’s champion Nathalia Tobar (East Northport, New York) finished in third place.
In the Women’s Junior Air Pistol event, Helen Oh (Walnut, California) edged our Maria Tsarik (Palatine, Illinois) for the Junior title by just .7 point in the Final. Tsarik finished yesterday’s match in third place. Rachel Cantrell (Boise, Idaho) finished in third place in today’s match.
On the Men’s side, the top three finishers from the previous days just shuffled positions on the podium. 2016 Olympian Will Brown (Twin Falls, Idaho), who finished in third place yesterday, won today’s Men’s Air Pistol title with a dominating 5.7-point win in the Final over his Olympic teammate Jay Shi (Phoenix, Arizona).
Brown also led the Qualification round with 580 points. Yesterday’s champion, James Henderson (Midland, Georgia), finished in third place.
Charles Platt (Colorado Springs, Colorado) picked up his second Men’s Junior Air Pistol title in a row. Henry Leverett (Bainbridge, Georgia) finished in second place. Leverett tied in Qualification for the highest score (559) with third-place finisher Anthony McCollum (Purdin, Missouri). McCollum finished in second place in yesterday’s match.
On the Rifle side, 2016 Olympic teammates Dan Lowe (U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit/Olympia, Washington) and Lucas Kozeniesky (Fairfax, Virginia) finished first/second respectively. Lowe edged out Kozeniesky for the top position by one point.
Lowe also won yesterday’s match. Bryant Wallizer (Little Orleans, Maryland) finished in third place.
Mark Amdahl (Albuquerque, New Mexico) won the Men’s Junior Air Rifle title with a flourish when he shot a perfect 10.9 for his final shot. Air Force Academy sophomore Spencer Cap (Cranbury, New Jersey) once again finished in second place in the event and Logan Ogden (Galway, New York) finished in third.
Sagen Maddalena (Groveland, California) won the Women’s Air Rifle event. She was followed by 18-year-old TCU prospect Elizabeth Marsh (Searcy, Arkansas) who took second and Ole Miss senior Alison Weisz (Belgrade, Montana) who finished in third.
But it was a TCU Horned Frogs sweep of the Women’s Junior Air Rifle podium as junior Mindy Miles (Weatherford, Texas), sophomore Rachel Garner (Celina, Texas) and Marsh went 1-2-3 on the podium.
Competition concludes tomorrow with another full match day. More than 375 domestic and international athletes are competing in the Winter Airgun Championships.
The competition includes three separate match days in Men’s and Women’s Air Rifle and Air Pistol, to include Junior competition as well. Awards are given upon the conclusion of each match day.
This match is part one of Junior World Team Selections, as well as an evaluation of possible candidates to compete in the first International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup match in New Delhi, India in February.
Live targets can be found here.
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