Captain Olssen — photo courtesy Norges Skytterforbund

CLICK HERE to download complete Match Results from Boden, Sweden

Team USA Wins Three Medals and Best Nation Title
American shooters from the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, (and one USNR member), won three medals and the coveted title of Best Nation at the CISM World Military Shooting Championship. “We were down by as many as 40 points,” said USAMU Commander Lt. Col. Frank Muggeo, USA CISM Team chief of mission. Ultimately we pulled it out by 10 points and have won the title of Best Nation. We have not won this event in eight years. Our soldiers were shooting in events that are only shot at CISM and they are not events that we practice throughout the year. This just goes to show how important the fundamentals of marksmanship are.”

US Women Win Gold at 50m
The first CISM Gold Medal was awarded to USA’s Women’s Rifle Team in the Women’s 50-Meter Sport Rifle Prone Team Match. Winning gold were: Sgt. Kelly A. Dove, Spc. Nicole M. Cooper of the USAMU, and Army Reservist Lt. Col. Rhonda L. Bright, formerly of the USAMU. In this match, the women fired 60 shots in 1.5 hours at a target with a bullseye smaller than a dime. Germany took the Silver Medal and Norway the Bronze.

China Wins Most Medals
The World Military Shooting Championship involves both pistol and rifle disciplines. By dominating the pistol matches, China finished with the highest medal count. China took home eleven medals from the championships, six of them gold, two silver and three bronze. Norway came second in the medal count with eight medals, followed by Belarus with five.

Norway’s Men and Women Both Win Gold in Team Rifle Events
The Team Rifle competition yielded double Gold Medals for Norway. In the 300m three-position military rapid fire rifle team match, Norway’s men smashed the world record to win gold. The new record is 1,724 points — 31 points better than the previous record. In the women’s 3×20 team rifle match, Norway’s lady shooters grabbed the gold, finishing two points ahead of runner-up Sweden. The Norwegian gold-medal winning team consisted of Kristina Vestveit, Gyda E. Olssen and Hanne Skarpodde. “We really hadn’t expected this, we did have our sights on a medal, but we never thought we’d shoot better than Germany’s team,” said an overjoyed Stale Larsen, team leader for the Norwegian women’s team.

Norway’s Army Capt. Gyda E. Olssen, hugs Norway team leader Stale Larsen
Photographer: Mats Engfors, PIC WMSC 2008.