Two Local Athletes Take Home Medals in ISSF World Cup

SUHL, Germany—Two middle Tennessee teenagers spent last week representing the United States of America in Suhl, Germany, as members of USA Shooting’s international trap and skeet teams. Both came home wearing medals.

In the Inaugural International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup event, Columbia’s Hannah Houston and Spring Hill’s Samantha Smith were among more than 1,200 athletes representing 46 countries. The pair earned their way onto the USA national junior team in March, with Smith winning the junior women’s gold in Olympic bunker trap and Houston taking the top medal in Olympic skeet, respectively. Both have trained at the Tennessee Certified Training Center in Nashville, a program of the Tennessee Wildlife Federation (TWF), with Houston based primarily at the TWF partner facility at the Maury County Gun Club.

Houston, a recent graduate of Zion Christian School in Columbia, finished the qualifying rounds tied with another Team USA shooter for the highest score heading into the finals. She and two women’s skeet teammates ultimately won the team gold medal, and she finished fifth overall in the individual competition.

In bunker trap, Smith, a rising senior at Summit High School in Spring Hill, is one of the newest Team USA members. She missed the finals by two targets and ended up tied for seventh overall. She earned a bronze medal with the women’s trap team.

“These two young ladies are the first athletes from the Tennessee Scholastic Clay Target Program to bring home medals from international competition,” said Chad Whittenburg, director of the Tennessee Certified Training Center. “They are shooting against the very best and performing exceptionally well.”

Both Houston and Smith will head to Granada, Spain, in September for the 51st Annual ISSF World Shooting Championships, where the world’s most talented trap and skeet athletes will vie for the first quota slots available for the Summer Olympics to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016.

The Tennessee Wildlife Federation operates the state’s Scholastic Clay Target Program, one of the most decorated in the nation. Athletes who have shined on the state and national levels can be invited to train at USA Shooting’s Tennessee Certified Training Center here, and to compete for opportunities to advance to international events.

Since 1946, the Tennessee Wildlife Federation has served as champions of our state’s Great Outdoors. To learn more, visit www.tnwf.org.

We ran a story on Samantha Smith a couple of months ago. You can see that here.