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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado – Four years ago at the 51st International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship in Granada, Spain, the USA Shooting Team left with only two medals in Pistol, both gold and both coming from then-Junior Alex Chichkov (Temple Terrace, Florida) in Men’s Sport and Standard Pistol. Fast-forward four years and the Pistol athletes of the USA Shooting Team are showing promise within the Junior and Open ranks as they head to the 52nd ISSF World Championship August 31 – September 15 in Changwon, South Korea.
Leading the way on the Open side will be 2017 USA Shooting Male Athlete of the Year and ISSF World Finals champ Keith Sanderson (Colorado Springs, Colorado) and on the women’s side, this year’s Air Pistol National Champion and Sport Pistol silver medalist Alexis Lagan (Boulder City, Nevada). The pair have found themselves finishing just outside of Finals at World Cups in 2018. Lagan also made her Finals debut in the Air Pistol Mixed Team event at World Cup Fort Benning where she and teammate Nick Mowrer (Butte, Montana) finished in fourth place. They will once again compete at the World Championship where he and Lagan will make their World Championship debut. Mowrer’s top international finish in 2018 was when he finished in eighth place in Men’s Air Pistol at the World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Chichkov will once again return to the World Championship stage in Changwon, this time in the Open ranks in Rapid Fire, Centerfire and Standard Pistol. Sanderson will also shoot these three events.
The potential within the Junior Pistol ranks may be as strong as it’s ever been, with most team members having gotten a taste of the World Champs stage during the 2017 ISSF Junior World Championship for Rifle/Pistol in Suhl, Germany last summer. Sarah Choe (Los Angeles, California, pictured) finished in eighth place in Junior Women’s Air Pistol. She and her teammates in Changwon - Katelyn Abeln (Douglasville, Georgia) and Kellie Foster (Rockdale, Texas - also won team silver in the event. Choe has posted several world-class scores in 2017 and 2018 and looks to continue her strong performances in Changwon.
In Suhl, Jack Leverett III (Bainbridge, Georgia) finished in fifth place in Junior Men’s Sport Pistol and 11th in Junior Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol. Leverett was also the bronze medalist overall at this year’s National Championship in Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol. While he may be one of the top-performing Junior Men, he may also have the most potential to bring in multiple medals as he will be competing in four events.
Check out the complete World Champs U.S. Team preview in the latest edition of USA Shooting News: http://www.usashooting.org/news/usasnews/2018-Q2-USASNews/index.html.
A complete schedule of events at the ISSF World Championship - Events are listed in local time. Changwon is 13 hours ahead of the U.S. Eastern Time Zone: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/schedule.ashx?cshipid=1750.
Finals will be broadcast live via the ISSF Livestream channel: https://livestream.com/ISSF.
Be sure to follow the team online throughout the World Championship:
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.
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