Nation’s Best Youth Competitive Shooters Meet in Colorado for National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships

The celebration of youth competitive shooting is upon us as USA Shooting welcomes junior competitors from across the U.S. to the United States Olympic Training Center for the 2013 National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships (NJOSC), April 2-19 in Colorado Springs.

The NJOSC program has been growing in size and stature to become the elite youth shooting competition in the country, allowing athletes to gather for a one-of-a-kind experience.

“The Junior Olympic Shooting Championships is the next step in the development of any junior shooter and his or her Olympic Path,” said 1992 Olympian and USA Shooting’s Director of Operations, Dave Johnson.

An overwhelming majority of the current National Team members competed in a NJOSC event at some time during their careers.  Former NJOSC shooter Amanda Furrer (Spokane, Wash.) is now a member of the National Rifle Team and a 2012 Olympian in Smallbore.  “NJOSC was one of the most influential things that I have participated in my shooting career,” said Furrer.  “The experience gave me the desire to pursue a collegiate shooting career [Ohio State University] and furthered my Olympic shooting dreams.”

Qualifying for the National competition begins at the state level as State Junior Olympic Championships included competition in 47 states utilizing 80 different USA Shooting clubs. The 2013 competition consisted of over 2,200 individual participants in rifle and pistol events. State champions and those who qualify via high scores are invited to Colorado Springs to compete in the NJSOC

The competition takes place over a three-week period with over 500 of the finest junior shooters in attendance. The top-two finishers in each event earn a spot on USA Shooting’s National Junior Team. The 17-day event features shooting matches in Men’s & Women’s Pistol (Air/Sport) and Rifle (Air/Smallbore). The schedule of competition is as follows:

Men’s & Women’s Pistol (April 3-6)

• April 3-4 – Men’s & Women’s Air
• April 5-6 – Men’s & Women’s Sport

Women’s Rifle (April 9-12)

• April 9-10 – Air
• April 11-12 – Smallbore (.22 caliber)

Men’s Rifle (April 15-19)

• April 15-16 – Air
• April 17-19 – Smallbore (.22 caliber)

The 2013 competition for Pistol is packed full of returning notables and new faces alike.

In the Women’s Air Pistol competition, last year’s third place finisher Darian Shenk (Annville, Pa.) and runner-up Alana Townsend (Kalispell, Mont.) are looking for redemption as they are both set to return. Standing in their way is last year’s champion Taylor Gallegos (Prosper, Texas) who is also set to return. After finishing fourth last year, Lydia Paterson (Kansas City, Kan.) is looking to take her place on the podium posting the highest qualifying score of 379 in her State JO Competition.

The men’s competition is highlighted by returning silver medalist Wyatt Brown (Twin Falls, Idaho) who will be looking to improve on last year’s finish. Southern California continues to produce young talented shooters.  Keep an eye out for last year’s high J3 shooter Paul Chong (Fontana, Calif.) or newcomer Joshua Yoo (Los Angeles, Calif.).  Alexander Chichkov (Tampa, Fla.) made a statement by posting the top qualifying score of 568 in his state championships, and will likely be turning heads yet again this year.

Starlin Shi (Potomac, Md.) highlights the Women’s Sport Pistol competition by returning to defend her 2012 gold medal. Looking to avenge last year’s fourth and fifth place finish are Erin Coscia (Zionsville, Ind.) and Cindy Chung (Diamond Bar, Calif.) who posted the top two state qualifying scores of 554 and 550 points respectively.

The Tuscaloosa News recently featured pistol shooters Kara Moody and Ronnie Pierson of the Blocton Bullets Junior Pistol Team who will look to establish themselves at this year’s match.  http://bit.ly/13YweLl. If you have stories about other Junior Olympic competitors, please submit them to media@usashooting.org.

Event recaps for Pistol will be released April 4 (Air) and April 6 (smallbore) at the conclusion of competition. Event previews for Women’s and Men’s Rifle will be distributed prior to the start of their competition with result recaps to follow on April 10, 12, 16 and 19.  For photos, please visit USA Shooting’s Flickr site at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/usashooting/

More information can also be found on the USA Shooting website (www.usashooting.org) by clicking on the ‘National Junior Olympic Program’ link located under the ‘Events’ tab. Follow along also using the Twitter Hashtag #NJOSC or via the USA Shooting’s Facebook page.  For scores, please visit USA Shooting’s match results page following each competition.