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By Brittany Nelson, USAS Public Relations & Communications Manager
COLO SPRGS, CO (Aug. 3, 2023) – USA Shooting junior athletes brought home a grand total of 13 medals from the 2023 International Shooting Sports Federation Junior World Championship in Changwon Korea, July 14-25.
Shotgun athletes showed their strength by earning nine of those medals. Benjamin Keller, of Johnstown Colorado, was crowned Junior Men’s Skeet World Champion, making him the first ever person in ISSF history to win back-to-back junior world champion titles, as he won gold in 2022.
“It’s an honor to have earned the opportunity to compete in the Junior World Championships again,” said Keller, the 2023 USA Shooting Junior National Men’s Skeet Champion. “These are the best junior skeet shooters in the world, and it feels amazing to have defended my title.”
Keller went on to help his teammates win silver in the Men’s Skeet Team Event. Keller, Joshua Corbin, from Reedsburg, Wisconsin, and Jordan Sapp, of Gilbert, Arizona, earned second after defeating Cyprus in the finals.
Keller earned a third medal in Mixed Skeet Team with Jessi Griffin, of Jasper, Georgia. The duo took home a bronze medal in the event.
“Jessi and I shot good qualification scores and after a long shoot-off we entered the bronze medal match and had a solid performance to win the bronze,” said Keller.
Griffin added a second medal to her collection when she won bronze alongside Madeline Corbin, of Reedsburg, Wisconsin, and Alishia “Fayth” Layne, of Columbia, Tennessee, in Women’s Skeet Team.
Layne also took home two medals, her second being a bronze in Women’s Skeet.
Junior trap athletes also had a strong showing. Ryann Phillips, of Gail, Texas, is the Junior Women’s Trap Champion. She earned her title after beating Giorgia Lenticchia of Italy in the gold medal match. This is Phillips’ second international gold medal of 2023. She won first place at the 2023 ISSF Suhl Junior World Cup in Women’s Trap. Carey Garrison, of Crossville, Tennessee, placed third overall and joined Phillips on the podium.
Garrison and Phillips teamed up with Kaleigh Castillo, of Livermore, California, to earn gold in the Women’s team Trap event. The American duo beat the Italian team in the gold medal match.
Garrison, the 2023 ISSF Suhl Junior World Cup silver medalist, also shot with William Browning, from Doylestown, Ohio, in the Mixed Team Trap event. The duo earned gold after shooting the combined top score from individual qualification rounds.
The junior rifle athletes took home a total of three medals and had multiple finalists. Braden Peiser, of San Angelo, Texas, earned bronze in Men’s 50m Prone Rifle after shooting the third overall top score.
“Winning bronze was a great feeling,” said Peiser. “My first international match for prone was five years ago here so it was nice to see my first individual medal to come from the same range.”
Peiser joined Gavin Barnick, of Mora, Minnesota, and Tyler Wee, of Wake Forest, North Carolina, in the Men’s 50m Prone Rifle team event where the trio earned bronze.
Katie Zaun, from Buffalo, North Dakota, Alivia Perkins, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Elizabeth Probst, of Brady, Texas, shot together on the Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Position team where they earned a bronze medal.
Probst, the 2023 Junior Olympic Women’s Smallbore National Champion, shot the top qualifying score to make the finals for individual Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions where she finished 7th overall.
Pistol shooter Ada Korkhin, of Brookline, Massachusetts, earned her first individual international medal when she took home bronze in Women’s 25m Pistol. In the final, she beat Payal Kuldeep of India who finished 4th.
“A lot of hard work and dedication went into the preparation for this competition, not only on my part, but of course from my coach, Libby (Elizabeth Callahan), my parents, and the staff at USA Shooting who got me there,” said Korkhin. “During the finals, I don’t think the pressure really hit me until the very end, so I was able to have a lot of fun! It felt incredibly fulfilling.”
Korkhin also competed in Women’s 10m Air Pistol where she finished 7th overall.
See below for a list of all the medals won:
Shotgun
Gold: Benjamin Keller, Men’s Skeet
Gold: Ryann Phillips, Women’s Trap
Gold: Mixed Trap Team: William Browning, and Carey Garrison
Gold: Women’s Trap Team: Kaleigh Castillo, Ryann Phillips, and Carey Garrison
Silver: Men’s Skeet Team: Joshua Corbin, Benjamin Keller, and Jordan Sapp
Bronze: Women’s Skeet Team: Jessi Griffin, Madeline Corbin, and Fayth Layne
Bronze: Alishia “Fayth” Layne, Women’s Skeet
Bronze: Mixed Skeet Team: Benjamin Keller, Jessi Griffin
Bronze: Carey Garrison, Women’s Trap
Rifle
Bronze: Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Position Team: Katie Zaun, Alivia Perkins, and Elizabeth Probst
Bronze: Braden Peiser, 50m Prone Rifle
Bronze: Men's 50m Prone Rifle Team: Gavin Barnick, Tyler Wee, and Braden Peiser
Pistol
Bronze: Ada Korkhin Women’s 25M Pistol
Up next for USA Shooting athletes is the ISSF World Championship (open age category) in Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 14- Sept. 1. This competition takes place with less than a year to go until the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Athletes will be striving for gold and a chance at a U.S. Olympic quota.
To date, USA Shooting has secured 15 quotas for the Paris Olympics and Paralympics. When an athlete earns a quota for the U.S. in a specific event, the U.S. becomes eligible to have an athlete compete in that event during the Olympic Games. Athletes are eligible to earn one event quota every four-year Olympic cycle.
Follow @USAShooting on social media to follow our Path to Paris and to stay up to date on all competitions and results.
CAPTION: Top- The Men’s Skeet Team, Joshua Corbin, Benjamin Keller, and Jordan Sapp, with their silver medal. Bottom- The Women’s Skeet Team, Jessi Griffin, Madeline Corbin, and Fayth Layne, with their bronze medal. Photo by Joshua Schave
About USA Shooting
USA Shooting, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation was chartered by the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee as the National Governing Body for the Olympic Shooting Sports in April 1995. The organization develops and implements programs to promote growth in the sport and serves as a sanctioning body for local and national competitions. Headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, at the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center, USA Shooting has a full-time staff dedicated to our sport.