IPC Shooting returns to birthplace of Paralympics

Nearly 120 shooters will line up in Stoke Mandeville, Great Britain, for the third IPC Shooting World Cup of 2013, including London 2012 silver and bronze medallist Matt Skelhon, silver medallist James Bevis and world-record holder Ryan Cockbill.

British athletes will make up one third of shooters registered to attend the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Shooting World Cup next week (2-4 July), to be held at the Stoke Mandeville Stadium.

It will be the first IPC Shooting competition to take place on British soil since London 2012 hosted the Paralympic competition at the Royal Artillery Barracks less than a year ago.

Nearly 120 shooters will line up in Stoke Mandeville, Great Britain, for the third IPC Shooting World Cup of 2013, including London 2012 silver and bronze medallist Matt Skelhon, silver medallist James Bevis and world-record holder Ryan Cockbill.

Skelhon will take aim in the R1 (men’s 10m air rifle standing SH1) and R3 (mixed 10m air rifle prone SH1) events, after missing out on gold by just 0.3 points in London to Frenchman Cedric Fevre in the R3 (10m air rifle prone) event.

Looking ahead to his competitive return to Great Britain, Skelhon said: “I'm in good shape - shooting well - so looking forward to it - would be nice to get the qualifying world record next.”

James Bevis will compete in the R4 (mixed 10m air rifle standing SH2) and R5 (10m air rifle prone SH2), against Cockbill who already collected gold at the second leg of the World Cup in Turkey in May.

Also competing at the Stoke Mandeville Stadium will be Ireland’s Sean Baldwin, who became the first Irish athlete to compete in shooting at the Paralympic Games last summer, lining up alongside Skelhon in the SH1 classification rifle events.

In the women’s events, Slovakia’s Veronika Vadovicova will travel to Buckinghamshire having competed in all World Cup events so far, setting a new world record in the R2 (women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1) event each time.

The Stoke Mandeville competition is the third in a programme of four World Cups taking place in 2013. Previous competitions have been held in Poland and Turkey, with Thailand following Great Britain from 12-19 August.

Entry to the Stoke Mandeville Stadium will be free throughout the competition, with events starting at 8:15 (GMT). Finals will commence at 15:30 on 2 July and 3 July, and from 16:45 on 4 July. More information can be found at the 2013 IPC Shooting World Cup web page.

The 2013 World Cups serve as a build up for the European Championships taking place in Alicante, Spain from 18-26 October. Over 200 athletes from 30 countries are expected to gather at the Club Lucentum for the first major IPC Shooting Championships since London 2012 and ahead of the 2014 World Championships, which will be held in Suhl, Germany.

Stoke Mandeville became the birthplace of the Paralympic Games when on 29 July 1948, the day of the Opening Ceremony of the London 1948 Olympic Games, Dr. Ludwig Guttmann from the spinal injuries centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, organized the first competition for wheelchair athletes which he named the Stoke Mandeville Games. These Games later became the Paralympic Games which first took place in Rome, Italy in 1960.