Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Fil-Am shooters stamps classs
By Karlon N. Rama
sun.Star Staff Reporter
The Philippines did not send a contingent to the 49th World Shooting Championship in Croatia, but a Filipino playing for the US Team broke the American Junior record by scoring 550 in the 25-meter Rapid Fire event held in the City of Zagreb last Monday.
Sean Ragay, 17, demolished the record that was set during the 2005 Nationals by Joseph Saucer who scored 486.
Still, Sean Ragay was 25 points from the Junior Division gold that, to the official International Sport Shooting Federation (ISSF) tally, went to Reitz Christian of Germany, who won it through shoot-off with Philipp Wagenitz, also of the German Team.
It was Sean's first attempt at Rapid Fire.
Recognition
Although the current All-American Award holder for Free Pistol, the first non-ethnic American to be bestowed the recognition, the young athlete who traces his routes to Barangay Capitol Site, Cebu City, was not allowed to play in slow-fire events by the US Olympics Committee.
He ranked 13th after the first day of hostilities and, after the semi-final round, was in 15th place, losing his chance to go into the final round.
"When Sean left for Zagreb, I told him that based on his training and what he had accomplished so far, his score in would be somewhere in the middle 540. I told him that he has to believe in himself, and that he was capable of shooting above his training level. An increase in score was excellent progress," said lawyer Efren Ragay, the athlete's father, in a statement by email.
"He started this sport (Rapid Fire) only recently. When he got his new Pardini gun as a replacement for his heavy-trigger Kimber, he only had two weeks left to train," the statement added.
That time was spent at the University of Utah, in Salt Lake City, with Coach Matt Delong who helped Sean’s transition from the slow fire (60 shots in two hours) orientation, inculcated into him because of his previous Free Pistol training, to Rapid Fire (a string of five shots in eight, six and four seconds).
Top scorers
The top scorers in the event were Christian, 575, Wagentiz, 575, Dmitry Brayko (Rus), 573, Leonid Emikov (Rus), 571, Kyusang Park (Kor) 568, Ivan Stuokachev (Rus), 567, Sergiu Adrian Simpoae (Rom), 566, Dan Qian (Chin), 566, Francois Duval (Fra), 562, and Dae Yoong Kim (Kor), 558.
In the men's event, 25-meter Rapid Fire, the gold went to Zhang Peng Hui of the Chinese team.
Penghui scored 290 and 293 to top the combined qualifying, then was the only finalist to score more than 200 in the final, with 203.6.
Teammate Liu Zhong Sheng was runner-up, which helped China take the team's title. (With reports from AP)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 2, 2006 issue)
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