September/October 2009: Volume 17, Number 5 - USA Shooting

News & Events2009 Poland/Czech Junior TripBy Marcus RaabBefore high school even finished classes for the year, a few of thecountry’s top junior shooters were on a plane out of Washington,D.C. heading to Europe for a training camp and competition. Somemissed the last few days of classes and one even missed their graduationceremony to spend ten days learning more about rifle shooting.As part of National Rifle Coach David Johnson’s long-range planfor junior shooters’ development, these training trips mirror thecamp and competition planned for next years 50th World ShootingChampionships in Munich, Germany.Those making the trip included Dempster Christenson (SiouxFalls, S.D.), Thomas Kyanko (Wellsburg, West Virginia), Dustin Chesebro(Laramie, Wyo.), Emily Quiner (Brooklyn Park, Minn.), EmilyHolsopple (Wilcox, Pa.), Sandra Fong (New York, N.Y.) and coachesJanet and Marcus Raab of Fairfax, Va.Long-distance travel to countries that do not speak English as aprimary language is a fact of life for American shooters. In additionto performing well in the competitions, the primary goal of the programis getting the athletes more comfortable in these foreign surroundingswhere food and accommodations may not be what theathletes are accustomed to here in the United States.One of the athletes on the trip, Sandra Fong, is no stranger to internationaltravel having been a veteran of multiple trips, most recentlyrepresenting the United States at the 2008 Beijing OlympicGames in the Women’s 50m 3 Position Rifle event. Having a highlyexperienced athlete, even at the young age of 19, was a distinct assetfor the other shooters.The team arrived in Wroclaw, Poland (pronounced Vrets-wav) onMay 28 and went directly to the Polish National Shooting Center onthe outskirts of the city. This was the first time an American shootingteam had been to Poland in many years. Coordination for the tripbegan last November at a visit to the range complex during a familytrip by the Raab coaches.The weather was unusually cold and rainy for most of the campand like most places in Europe, they turn the heating system offaround the first of May. The rooms were quite chilly at night, but thatdid not stop the shooters from working hard on the ranges during theday. Utilizing the facilities electronic ranges, we had the opportunityto work on problem areas and do detail work on sights and grips.It was a real honor to be the first to shoot air rifle on their brandnew indoor finals hall which had been converted from the no longerused 50 meter running target ranges into a two bay fully electronicfinals hall that looked remarkably like the finals hall in Munich. Therange staff had just completed installing the target systems, so theyneeded to test them and the display equipment, and the Americanshooters were more than happy to oblige.It was not all work on the range. Part of becoming comfortable intheir surrounding is learning how to get around, so on Sunday afternoonwe took trip to the city by bus. That required learning whereand how to purchase bus tickets as well as how to read the scheduleand route maps. After a lunch of, what else, pizza, we wanderedaround the city center square shopping and seeing the most famousof the city attractions. One of the unique features of Wroc_aw is thefamous collection of gnomes, small bronze figures scattered in variousand sometimes unusual locations throughout the square. It becamea challenge to find as many as possible.After the six-day camp, we traveled to Pilsen, in the Czech Republicby bus with the Polish junior squad. It was a great opportunityto meet new friends on the seven-hour journey. Once in Pilsen forthe 19th Meeting of the Shooting Hopes, it was all business on theranges with training on Thursday and competitions in 10, Air Rifleand 50m Prone and 3 Position Rifle for both men and women overthe next three days.In the men’s prone match, Thomas Kyanko tied for eighth spot inthe final. Using the new ISSF rules for determining final participants,he had to fire a 5-shot shoulder-to-shoulder shoot-off with SebastianRabalski of Poland. Kyanko ended up on the short end of that shootoff51.0 to 51.5 finishing in ninth place but we all learned valuablelessons that transferred to the rest of the team and coaches. TeamUSA finished in third behind the Czech B and A squads.In the men’s 3-position match Kyanko also was the high scoringAmerican firing an 1154 in the qualification round, this time easilyqualifying in fifth place. After final shots were recorded, he finishedin eighth. Thomas Mathis of Austria earned the gold medal with an1168 and 95.9 in the final.Dustin Chesebro was also involved in a three-way 5-shot shootofffor the eighth position in the men’s air rifle final. He ended up intenth firing a 50.0 vs. a 51.2 by Nikola Pudev of Russia and 52.1 bythe eventual finalist from India, Chain Singh, but again learned valuablelessons for the future.The highlight of the competition came on the last day when Fong(581) and Holsopple (579) started the final for the women’s 3-positionevent in first and second respectively. Fong had trouble earlyand that let the consistently strong shooting of Holsopple overtakeher. Fong fought back in the end holding off the third place Russian,Alina Ivacheva, but it was not enough to regain first. It was a 1-2 finishfor the United States, continuing a string of success in this eventfor the past three years. The U.S. women’s team also took home asilver medal behind the Czech A team.After a successful competition, the team had to get on the roadearly (3:00 a.m.) the next morning to make a 7:00 a.m. flight fromPrague back to the United States. After a catnap on the overseas legof the flight, most were making their final notes on their report toNational Rifle Coach Dave Johnson on what they learned on the tripand how it will help them in the future.34 USA Shooting News