Jessie Abbate Returns To Steel Challenge Winner’s Circle

Jessie Abbate (Photo Credit: Yamil Sued)

PIRU, Calif. – For the second year in a row, and for the third time in her career, Jessie Abbate of McDonough, Ga. claimed the title of world’s fastest female shooter by winning the Steel Challenge World Speed Shooting Championships in Piru, Calif.

In addition to winning the overall title, Abbate won the Lady’s Open Rimfire title as well as the Lady’s Steel Master title which represents the best combined score of the Open, Limited and Rimfire events.

“Winning both again was amazing, especially this year. It was a tough weekend for me and I really had to fight for it,”said Abbate who in 2009 won all three matches she entered and dominated the event but found this year’s competition to be mentally challenging.

“Sometimes your mental game isn’t where it’s supposed to be. Last year I felt like I couldn’t make a mistake, and then this year I put a lot of pressure on myself to break the records that I had set and I wasn’t seeing things the way I did last year, or something was just not the same, so I adjusted and worked around that.”

Kay Miculec (Photo Credit: Yamil Sued)

And work around it she did. Abbate started the match strong taking the Lady’s Open Rimfire title by winning seven of the eight stages in the match, giving up the fastest time on Outer Limits to newcomer Sarah Irish of Dearborn, Mich. Abbate’s final time of 76.90 seconds outpaced the second place shooter Kay Miculek of Team Smith &Wesson by 11.60 seconds.

Miculek, a Princeton, La. resident and seven time Women’s World Speed Shooting Champion, finished second in 88.50 seconds. Third place, and the Junior Lady’s title, went to Irish who finished 1.39 seconds behind Miculek in a time of 89.89 seconds.

Then in the Limited event, Abbate fell to second behind the captain of the Smith & Wesson shooting team, Julie Golob of Glasgow, Mont. Abbate won five of the eight stages in the competition but gave up 4.83 seconds to Golob on the stage Outer Limits.

Julie Golob (Photo Credit: Yamil Sued)

Sarah Irish (Photo Credit: Yamil Sued)