Soldier Wins World Cup Shooting Medal

FORT BENNING, Ga. - An Army Reserve Soldier and a former U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit shooter walked away with the only two U.S. medals this year at the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup USA ending May 15.

Staff Sgt. Elizabeth "Libby" Callahan, 53, of Upper Marlboro, Md., earned a bronze medal May 13 in the Women's 10-Meter Air Pistol competition.

Eric Uptagrafft, 39, of Longmont, Colo., a former USAMU Soldier and current Navy Reserve lieutenant, earned a silver medal in the Men's 50-Meter Free Rifle Prone competition May 11.

It came down to a half-point difference between the gold and silver in the Men's 50-Meter Free Rifle Prone match.

Uptagrafft and France's Valerian Sauveplane both equaled the current world record with their qualifying perfect score of 600, but Sauveplane was able to squeak by with the gold for France with a 103.3 in the final. Uptagrafft hit a 102.8 in the final to mark the first U.S. medal won at this World Cup. The shooters tied the world record also currently held by USAMU's Sgt. 1st Class Thomas A. Tamas, a native of Columbus, Ga.

"I am a little disappointed I didn't win," said Uptagrafft, who was a 1996 Olympian in this event. "It was the first time I remember ever seeing two 600s shot in a match but I knew I would have to stick a good final to win. I definitely had my work cut out for me. My position felt good, just not perfect."

Israel's Guy Starik clinched the bronze in the prone event. Starik hit a 104.9 in the final to move up from a four-way tie for fourth to third. Tamas, who will be 40 next month, finished in 32nd place with a score of 592.

Callahan, a retired Washington, D.C. police officer, was looking at eighth place going into the finals and within 10 shots she had worked her way up to third. Callahan hit a 100.2 in the finals for a total score of 481.2.

"It is great to finally have everything come together, especially in a final," Callahan said. "I have been struggling in air for a while, so this feels really good. I honestly didn't expect to move up like I did. I was just concentrating on hitting good scores and it ended up working out really well."

Viktoria Chaika of Belarus took the gold medal. Chaika led going into the final with a 390 and finished with a 491.2 total score. Jasna Sekaric of Serbia and Montenegro clinched the silver medal with a score of 484.4.

Rebecca Snyder, 28, of Colorado Springs came in 25th with a qualifying score of 375 and 14-year-old Heather Deppe of San Antonio, Texas, finished 40th with a 357.

Emil Milev of Bulgaria set a new final world record and won the gold medal in the Men's 25-Meter Rapid Fire Pistol event on the last day of the World Cup May 14.

Milev hit a 583 in the qualifying rounds and a 200.2 in the finals for a 783.2 total score and the win. Alexei Klimov of Russia finished with a 779.8 total score for the silver mMedal and Penghui Zhang of China took the bronze with 778.1.

The top finisher for the USA was Sgt. Keith A. Sanderson of the Army Marksmanship Unit who finished tied for ninth with a 571; Sanderson, 30, is the reigning U.S. National Champion in this event.

In the final event of the World Cup competition, Men's 50-Meter Three-Position Free Rifle, Juha Hirvi of Finland and Mario Knoegler of Austria ended in a tie. Hirvi finished the qualifying rounds in a first place, shooting a 1,174, but almost gave it away in the end, shooting a 94.5 in the finals for a 1,268.5.

Knoegler went into the finals in third and hit a 96.5 to move up and give Hirvi a run for his money. In the end, however, Hirvi hit a 9.0 in the shoot-off for the gold, whereas Knoegler got the silver with a 7.3; Artem Khadjibekov of Russia grabbed the bBronze with a 1,267.7. Uptagrafft was the top finisher for the USA in this event; he tied for 12th place with a 1,164 total score.

China won its fourth gold medal May 12 in Men's 10-Meter Air Rifle. The 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist in this event, Qinan Zhu, worked his way up from eighth in the finals to first with a 104.6 final score. Zhu won with a 699.6 total score, Peter Sidi of Hungary finished in second with a score of 699.5 and Thomas Farnick of Austria clinched third with a 699.1.

The top finishers for the United States were Sgt. 1st Class Jason A. Parker, 30, of the Army Marksmanship Unit. Parker and Matthew Rawlings, 20, of Wharton, Texas, who both hit a 591 and tied for 23rd place. Hawaiian Ryan Tanoue, 22, finished 33rd with a 589.

In the Women's 25-Meter Sport Pistol May 11, China grabbed two more medals. Ying Chen won the gold with a final world record of 204.4 and a total score of 791.4 and her teammate Fengji got the bronze with a 789.1. Maria Grozdeva of Bulgaria squeezed in there with a 790.3 for the Silver.

Callahan finished in 18th place with a score of 576 out of 600 and Snyder was 23rd with a 574. Navy Reserve Petty Officer 2nd Class Sandra Uptagrafft, 34, wife of the Prone Rifle silver medalist, was 31st with a 566.

Russia took two medals in Men's Air Pistol competition May 11; Vladimir Gontcharov won the gold with a 687.0 total score and Mikhail Nestruev grabbed a silver with a 685.2. Franck Dumoulin of France beat Francesco Bruno of Italy with a 684.3 in the shoot-off for the bronze medal.

The top USA finisher was Sgt. 1st Class Daryl Szarenski, 37, of the USAMU in 11th place with a 580 out of 600. USAMU's Staff Sgt. John C. Ennis, 28, finished 27th with a 575 and Brian Beaman, 21, was 50th with a 563.

More than 400 world-class shooters from 51 countries competed in the ISSF World Cup USA May 6 to 15 at Fort Benning, Ga. The U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit hosted the World Cup and the competition was conducted by USA Shooting, the U.S. Olympic governing body for the Olympic shooting sports and the ISSF.

Every year, qualified shooters of each of the Olympic shooting disciplines participate in four World Cups. Not only can shooters win medals and set world records at the World Cups, but they can also win quota slots for their countries to compete in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

The final medal count was: China 9; Russia 6; Austria, Bulgaria, France and USA 2 each; and Belarus, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Israel, Kazakhstan and Serbia and Montenegro 1 each. For full results from the World Cup USA, log on to www.usashooting.org.

(Editor's note: Information provided by USA Shooting and the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit)

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Hoorah, Army!!!!!