Ten Athletes Head to World Cup Final in India

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado - The ten USA Shooting athletes heading to the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Final in New Delhi, India are looking to close out the international season on a high note by claiming one of the glass globe trophies awarded to the year's best-of-the-best athletes at this invitation-only match beginning on Sunday.

The newly-minted Olympic events of Air Rifle Mixed Team, Air Pistol Mixed Team and Trap Mixed Team kick off this World Cup Final and will be contested for the first time at this event. The U.S. has two teams represented in the Trap Mixed Team event in Kayle Browning/Jake Wallace and World Championship bronze medalists Ashley Carroll/Derek Haldeman.

Browning (Wooster, Arkansas) and Wallace (Castaic, California) won a team silver at the World Cup in Acapulco, Mexico. Carroll (Solvang, California) and Haldeman (U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit/Sunbury, Ohio) won team bronze at the World Championship in Moscow, Russia. This match will be the first time both teams know who their teammate will be before entering the match.

"The way the team event goes, it's still a pretty individual game," said Haldeman, who will make his World Cup Final debut in New Delhi. Haldeman was a Double Trap specialist and fully converted to Trap this season upon Double Trap's elimination from the Olympic program. "It's hard to help each other out during the actual competition. [Carroll] came down to Fort Benning to work on stuff. We worked on how we can work together, what we can say and what we can't say, and that's kind of how we were getting ready for World Cup Final. We'll shoot together, have fun with it and see what happens!"

Read about Carroll/Haldeman in this story by Team USA:https://www.teamusa.org/News/2017/September/20/Ultimate-Couple-Makes-Ultimate-Team-As-Dating-Shooters-Win-World-Medal-Together.

USA Shooting's Shotgun success has been a highlight throughout 2017 as the team has garnered 26 top-10 finishes in international competition to go along with 12 individual medals and eight team medals. Building on that strength will be the Women's Skeet competitors in this event, which includes National and World Champion Dania Vizzi (Odessa, Florida), World Cup Acapulco silver medalist and fourth-place finisher at World Cup New Delhi Caitlin Connor (Winnfield, Louisiana) and six-time Olympic medalist and defending World Cup Final Champion Kim Rhode (El Monte, California), who won two golds and a silver in World Cup competition this year alone. Rhode also finished fourth at the World Championship. The trio of Rhode, Vizzi and Connor (pictured) also won a team gold medal at the World Championship where they set a Team World Record.

"I'm so excited, it's my first World Cup Final!" said Vizzi. "I kind of already accomplished my goal for the year so going into this, I just want to have fun. It's not like that because I won in Russia I have to put all this pressure on me. We already have some of the best Skeet ladies in the world right here in the U.S. that I compete with all the time. [Coach Todd Graves] said this is a fun shoot every year so I'm going to go out and have a fun shoot."

Read about Vizzi in this story by Team USA:https://www.teamusa.org/News/2017/September/08/Dania-Vizzi-Wins-Skeet-World-Title-Three-Years-After-Topping-The-Junior-Podium.

2016 Olympic gold medalist Ginny Thrasher (Springfield, Virginia) is Rifle's only representation for the U.S. at this World Cup Final. Thrasher, who earned her berth by virtue of her Olympic gold medal, also won bronze at the 2016 World Cup Final in Bologna, Italy.

Two-time Olympian Frank Thompson (Alliance, Nebraska) will be the lone U.S. Men's Skeet representative. Thompson won his first World Cup medal when he won silver in Acapulco.

Carroll will compete again later in the week, this time as the lone U.S. competitor in Women's Trap. Carroll had a breakout year with not only her third National Championship win in a row, but also with her gold-medal win and world-record finish at World Cup Acapulco and sixth-place finish at the World Championship.

Wrapping up this World Cup Final will be Men's Rapid Fire Pistol with Keith Sanderson (Colorado Springs, Colorado) as the lone U.S. competitor. Sanderson's top international finish in 2017 was his sixth-place finish at World Cup Gabala (Azerbaijan).

Competition begins Sunday and concludes on October 30. The ISSF World Cup Final occurs each year at the conclusion of the World Cup season. Athletes earn points through finishes throughout the season, with the eight best athletes in each event with the highest qualification values earning invitations to this match. Wild card invitations are also granted to title defenders and in years of the Olympic Games and World Championships, to the three medalists in each event. 160 athletes from 15 countries will compete in this World Cup Final.

Finals will be streamed live on the ISSF website, on the Federation's Livestream channel, on its official Facebook page and on the Olympic Channel.

ISSF World Cup Final: Finals Schedule
All times are listed in Eastern Time. New Delhi is 10.5 hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone

Tuesday, October 24th: Trap Mixed Team at 4:30 a.m.

Wednesday, October 25th: Skeet Women at 5:30 a.m.

Thursday, October 26th: 10m Air Rifle Women at 2:30 a.m., Skeet Men at 5:30 a.m.

Saturday, October 28th: Trap Women at 5:00 a.m.

Sunday, October 29th: 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men at 12:45 a.m.

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 eley.co.uk.

Winchester Ammunition is a Proud Sponsor of the USA Shooting Shotgun Team: Winchester Ammunition has been the exclusive ammunition sponsor and supplier of the USA Shooting Shotgun Team since 1999. Members of the past three shotgun teams brought home a combined eight medals from Rio de Janeiro, London and Beijing using Winchester AA International Target loads. Winchester is an industry leader in advancing and supporting conservation, hunter education and our country's proud shooting sports heritage. For more information about Winchester and its complete line of products, visit winchester.com.

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.

Contact:
Jessica Delos Reyes
jessica.delosreyes@usashooting.org
USA Shooting