Mindy Miles

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado – More than 50 rifle athletes from the United States, Canada, Brazil and Columbia will compete in the Robert Mitchell Rifle Championships February 5 – 10 at the Olympic Shooting Center in Colorado Springs.

The annual Rifle-only match attracts talent from North and South America looking to start the year strong before the 2019 International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) and World Shooting Para Sport (WSPS) competition seasons begin. This year’s event will feature four Olympians and three Paralympians in the lineup of athletes.

On the women’s side, look for the duel of athletes who recently faced off against each other at the Championship of the Americas in November in Mexico. Air Rifle gold and silver medalists Mindy Miles (Weatherford, Texas) and Ali Weisz (Belgrade, Montana) will compete in both events, as well as Three-Position Rifle gold medalist Sarah Beard (Danville, Indiana/U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit) and bronze medalist Yarimar Mercado Martinez of Puerto Rico. Just a week back from posting top scores at the Meyton and H&N Cups in Europe, look for strong performances from Mary Tucker (Colorado Springs, Colorado) and Sagen Maddalena (Groveland, California) as well. Tucker won silver in Junior Women’s Air Rifle at the Meyton Cup and Maddalena set a National Record in Women’s Air Rifle of 632.2 at the Meyton Cup as well.

The men’s side will showcase its share of talent as well from the Championship of the Americas with Air Rifle gold medalist Dempster Christenson (Sioux Falls, South Dakota) and silver medalist and 2016 Olympian Lucas Kozeniesky (Fairfax, Virginia). Two-time Olympian and 2018 World Championship bronze medalist for Three-Position Rifle Michael McPhail (Darlington, Wisconsin/USAMU) will also compete.

Just days after the conclusion of this match, many of the Paralympic competitors will depart for the WSPS World Cup in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates with valuable Paralympic Games quotas up for grabs. In addition to 2016 Paralympic bronze medalist McKenna Dahl (Arlington, Washington), look for strong performances from two-time World Cup bronze medalist Taylor Farmer (Castalia, Ohio). Farmer won both medals at the WSPS World Cup in France in November. John Joss(Corsicana, Texas/USAMU) also won silver at that World Cup, as well as a Paralympic Games quota for the United States.

Schedule: http://www.usashooting.org/library/Competitions/0_2019/19_

Robert_Mitchell/1.14_Robert_Mitchell_Schedule.pdf.

This match is named for Robert Mitchell, who helped build USA Shooting from its infancy as a National Governing Body through his 30-year career with the organization. He spent time as the National Team Coach, Director of Operations and Chief Executive Officer. During his retirement ceremony in August 2016, the USA Shooting staff announced that they were renaming this match from the Rocky Mountain Rifle Championship in his honor. The match originated under Mitchell back in 1986 when he was National Rifle Coach.

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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