John Joss closed out the final day of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Shooting World Cup in Sydney, Australia just the way he intended: With a silver medal and a Paralympic quota in his marquee event – R6 (Mixed 50m Rifle Prone SH1). Prior to this World Cup, Joss had predicted he’d win a Paralympic quota at the event. “If I earn a quota in 50m Prone [in Sydney], I’ll be a happy son of a gun…. I’ve been really putting my effort into 50 meter so I think I’m going to get it there.”
Joss (U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit / Corsicana, Texas) finished Qualification in second place with a score of 615.7. Once the Final, the final three shooters remaining were only separated by only .1 point. Abdulla Sultan Alaryani of the United Arab Emirates would then shoot a perfect 10.9 to pull ahead and take the gold medal. Yaping Yan of China would claim the bronze.
Prior to this World Cup, Joss had most recently competed in one of two Men’s Open Prone Finals at the USA Shooting National Championships where he finished 17th overall. He also earned the Minimum Qualifying Score (MQS) when he shot in the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan last month. Joss was the only Paralympic athlete to compete at the event. The R6 silver medal is Joss’s first international medal in the R6 event. Learn more about Joss in the most recent issue of USA Shooting News here.
A quota spot is essentially the entry ticket necessary for a country to compete in Paralympic competition in a particular discipline. A Paralympic quota doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the athlete who won the quota will fill the spot at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Athletes nominated to the U.S. Paralympic Team will be selected by a committee based on Paralympic competition performance. Joss’ quota is the third for the U.S., with Michael Tagliapietra and McKenna Dahl winning quotas at last year’s IPC Shooting World Championship. For more information on the USA Shooting selection process for the Paralympic Games, please click here.
The U.S. also had athletes competing in the P1 (Men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1) event today. Shaun Tichenor (USAMU / Brainerd, Minnesota) finished in 11th place with a score of 550 and Len Esparza (Cupertino, California) finished in 27th place with a score of 502. To learn more about the rest of the Paralympic Shooting events, please visit: http://www.paralympic.org/shooting/about.
The other U.S. medal at this World Cup came from Tagliapietra (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin) who won gold in the P3 (Mixed 25m Pistol SH1) event. For complete scores from the IPC Shooting World Cup in Sydney, please visit: http://www.paralympic.org/shooting/live-results.
The IPC Shooting World Cup in Sydney was the penultimate Paralympic Games qualifier. The next and final opportunity to earn Paralympic Games quotas will be the World Cup in Fort Benning, Georgia November 3 – 7.