On Sunday (17th July, 2022) the Australian Men’s Rifle Team of Dane Sampson (QLD), Jack Rossiter (SA) and Michael Davis (VIC) won the bronze medal in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Teams event at the World Cup in Changwon Korea.
This is the second World Cup Medal this Men’s Team has won on the international circuit this year following on from the silver medal won in the 10m Air Rifle Men’s Team event at the Baku, Azerbaijan World Cup only weeks prior.
After stage one of qualifying with each of the three team members shooting a series in the kneeling, prone and standing positions, the Australians were placed 7th with a combined score of 1306. With the top 8 teams progressing to stage two and again required to shoot a series in each of the three positions, the trio finished in 3rd place with a total score of 872, four points ahead of Japan who they would meet in the bronze medal match.
Into the bronze medal match and it was Sampson shooting the prone position, Davis shooting kneeling and Rossiter shooting standing. Team Australia dominated only losing 3 out of 11 single shot series’ to claim the bronze medal 16 points to Japan’s 6 points.
The World Cup in Korea has demonstrated the world class ability of the men’s rifle team with Sampson finishing 5th in the 10m Air Rifle individual event, the men’s team of Rossiter, Sampson and Alex Hoberg progressing through to the second stage of Qualifying in the 10m Air Rifle Mens Team event where they finished in 8th place and Rossiter, only the day prior to the teams event, finished 5th in the individual 50m 3 Positions event.
When Rossiter was asked if being in the individual final for the 50m 3 Positions made him feel more comfortable about shooting standing in the teams medal match he replied ‘yes definitely. I didn’t feel that nervous shooting standing in the teams final as I feel like I already did it yesterday so I was just trying to do the same or better because I got eliminated yesterday {laughing}. When Davis was asked if he was happy to be shooting the kneeling position in the bronze medal match he said ‘yeah I think it’s the most solid of my positions at the moment so I was happy.’
Sampson, as a multiple participant in finals in Changwon starting with the 2018 World Championships 50m 3P final, the 10m Air final in this World Cup as well as the Teams 50m 3P final, was asked how he compares his performance since his first final in 2018, ‘In 2018 I shot a PB by like 6 points to get into the final for that. That was definitely one of the heights of my career for sure. It was a huge achievement that one but I really like Korea. It’s great to be in the finals again here and I feel more comfortable because it is familiar and the finals range is familiar…and after Baku in the Teams final with these guys there [in Baku], it felt normal to be in a final again here [in Changwon] in the teams.’
The Australian Rifle team will now return to Australia and focus on their preparations for the ISSF Rifle World Championships (in conjunction with Pistol) to be held in Cairo, Egypt 12-25 October where Tori Rossiter, Elise Collier and Alex Hoberg will join Sampson, Rossiter and Davis.