The 12th Championship of the Americas wrapped up today with the finals for Women and Men’s Skeet.
As usual, the first up were the women. At the end of qualification the top two women were both from the United States. Six-time Olympic Medalist Kim Rhode and USAMU member Amber English were tied with a score of 121/125. In third place was Chilean shooter Francisca Crovetto Chadid with 117, followed by current World Champion Caitlin Connor with a score of 113. The last two finalists were Mexico’s Gabriela Rodriguez with 109 and Argentina’s Melisa Gil with a 106. The only shoot-off needed was between Amber and Kim for the #1 bib, which Amber ended up winning.
When the dust settled on the finals, Amber English would come out with the Gold, posting a score of 55 to Silver Medalist Kim Rhode’s 52. Chile’s Francisca Crovetto Chadid would finish with the Bronze. World Champion Caitlin Connor ended up in 4th place.
On the Men’s side, Two-Time Olympian Frank Thompson would end qualification on top after only dropping a single bird. His 124/125 would put him 3 targets clear of second place, Cuban Juan Miguel Rodriguez Martinez. There would be two shoot-offs for the remaining finalist positions. 3rd, 4th, and 5th place were a trio of 120’s, and following the shoot-off, those positions would be made up of Chile’s Jorge Atalah, Argentina’s Federico Gil, and USAMU Member, Phillip Jungman. The last finalist position was earned by Julio Elizardo Dujarric Lembcke of the Dominican Republic with a 119, following a 4 way shoot-off that also contained USAMU Member Dustan Taylor.
Frank would leave the finals in the same place he entered, taking Gold with a 59/60, equaling teammate Vincent Hancock’s World Record performance in Changwon during the World Championships. Just two targets behind was Federico Gil for the Silver with a 57, and the Bronze goes home with Jorge Atalah who finished with a score of 47. USAMU athlete Philip Jungman ended up in 4th place.
Frank’s Gold also comes with an Olympic quota place, the second for the US Men after Vinny’s Gold at the World Championships. That means that the US Skeet Team is maxed out on quotas for the Olympics, with the Women having earned the maximum of two quota places per country by sweeping the podium in Changwon. On the trap side, the women earned one quota place at the CAT Games with Kayle Browning’s Gold medal performance, while the men are still looking to get their first quota of this Olympic cycle.
To view the final scores from the 12th Championship of the Americas, you can find them on the Sius website at this link.