Timothy Sherry celebrates winning the shooting 50-meter rifle 3 positions competition at the Pan American Games Lima 2019 on July 30, 2019 in Lima, Peru.
Tim Sherry and Henry Leverett won’t know until next year whether or not they’ll be members of Team USA competing at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, but things are looking good for both men right now.
Sherry holds a 10-point lead in men’s three-position rifle and Leverett has the top spot in men’s rapid fire pistol after the first of two stages of Olympic trials, held this week at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Sherry, a member of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit who won gold in the event at the Pan American Games Lima 2019, led Peter Fiori Jr. of the Air Force Academy by three points after Thursday’s competition and expanded his lead on Friday. Sherry has 2,359 points, leading Patrick Sunderman by 10 and Fiori by 15. Two-time Olympian Michael McPhail is currently in fourth place with a total of 2,339 points.
McPhail earned the first of two U.S. Olympic quota spots in the event when he won the bronze medal at the 2018 world championships, the first medal for the U.S. in the event since 1994.
Leverett, just 18 years old, holds a six-point lead in men’s rapid fire pistol over three-time Olympian Keith Sanderson, 1,159 to 1,153. Behind Sanderson is Brian Kim with 1,141 points. Leverett is responsible for the lone Olympic quota spot the U.S. holds in the event, and he earned it at his first-ever ISSF World Cup event in Beijing in 2018 as a 17-year-old. Leverett finished fifth at the competition.
Earlier in the week, Olympic gold medalist Ginny Thrasher took an early lead in the women’s three-position rifle competition, while Alexis Lagan leads in women’s sport pistol.
The scores from part one of the trials will be added to the scores from part two, which will take place in March 2020, to decide the athletes that will compete in Tokyo.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
