Wigger’s Rifle Victory Protested by Beard

Ronald Wigger of Columbus, Ga., won the men’s smallbore rifle prone event Thursday in a tiebreaker that is under protest, and Launi Meili of Colorado Springs, Colo., left no room for doubt about who won the women’s air rifle event, taking that national title with a meet record in the 27th U.S. International Shooting Championships at Prado Tiro in Chino.

Wigger fired a 1,790 three-day aggregate score, as did William Beard of Indianapolis. The statistics crew ruled Beard was the champion, but the official scorekeeping jury found the tiebreaking rules were vague for a three-course match.

Expecting a protest to be filed, they awarded Wigger the title based on his final 10 shots during each course of fire.

In the women’s air rifle event, Meili fired a three-course match score of 1,572 of a possible 1,800, shattering the USISC record of 1,567 set last year by Elaine Profitt. Meili then shot a 96x100 in the shootoff held among the top eight shooters for an aggregate score of 1,668 to win the national title.