COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (October 1, 2019)
Competitors in women's sport pistol at Fort Benning, Georgia, on October 1.
Olympic gold medalist Ginny Thrasher (Springfield, Va.) and Alexis Lagan (Boulder City, Nev.) claimed the top spots on their respective leaderboards after Tuesday’s opening day of competition at the USA Shooting Rifle-Pistol Fall Selection, 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials Part 1 in Fort Benning, Georgia. The scores from this competition will be added to the scores from the second phase of the trials taking place in March of next year to determine which athletes will represent the U.S. in Tokyo.
Thrasher, who won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in 10m air rifle and is a former member of the University of West Virginia rifle team, posted a score of 1171 in the women’s 3x40 smallbore rifle competition to open up a four-point advantage on both Rachel Martin (Lincoln, Neb.) and Mary Tucker (Sarasota, Fla.). Martin is the head coach of the rifle team at the University of Nebraska, while Tucker competes for the University of Kentucky.
Sitting in fourth place with a score of 1166 is Sagen Maddalena (Groveland, Calif.) of the Army Marksmanship Unit and former member of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks rifle team. Rounding out the top five with a first-day score of 1165 is former Murray State rifle team member MacKenzie Martin (Fairhaven, Mass.).
Lagan enjoys a five-point advantage in the women’s sport pistol competition after a first-day total of 577. Five-time Pan American Games medalist Sandra Uptagrafft (Phenix City, Ala.) is in second place with 572 points. After that, there is a three-way tie for third place in the women’s sport pistol event with Ohio State pistol
