U.S. International Shooting Championship : Bensley Wins Running Target-Mixed Run Title

Todd Bensley of Las Cruces, N.M., captured the running target-mixed run title Saturday at the U.S. International Shooting Championship.

Bensley finished with an aggregate score of 1,160 of a possible 1,200 points in the competition at Prado Tiro, the site of the 1984 Olympic shooting competition.

The event requires a shooter to fire at the silhouette of a running boar as it moves across an opening 50 meters away.

“This is my first national championship, but for four consecutive years, I’ve been second place in the Olympic run course,” said Bensley, who shot in the 1984 Olympics.

The victory assures Bensley a chance to represent the United States in world competition this year.

In other ongoing competition, Tony Leone of Arlington, Va., leads the small bore English match competition, a prone event shot at 50 meters, with an aggregate score of 1,195 of a possible 1,200 points.

Lones Wigger of Columbus, Ga., a former Olympic medalist in rifle shooting and world champion, was in second with an 1,194 score. In third was Ernie Vande Zande of Colorado Springs, Colo., with 1,191.

In the standard pistol event, Don Nygord, of La Crescenta, took a five-point lead over Don Hamilton of Kingston, Mass.

Nygord has a two-day aggregate score of 1,145 of 1,200 possible against Hamilton’s 1,140.