Rodzik and Okoniewski to meet at Poland World Cup

The compelling rivalry between Polish teammates Filip Rodzik and Slawomir Okoniewski is set to continue from Friday (17 April), as the next IPC Shooting World Cup begins on their home soil in Szczecin.

P1 (men’s 10m air pistol SH1) European champion Rodzik had an incredibly close fight with Okoniewski at the 2013 IPC Shooting European Championships in Alicante, Spain, just edging to gold by 0.4 points.

Rodzik and Okoniewski will also meet in P5 (mixed 10m air pistol standard SH1), with P2 (women’s 10m air pistol SH1), featuring Ukrainian 2014 world No.3 Iryna Liakhu, rounding off the pistol events.

Five members of Team USA have also made the journey across the Atlantic to compete at their first World Cup of the year as they make their way towards the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

Youngster McKenna Dahl, 18, is a rising star of the US team. Dahl made her World Championships debut in 2014, and is making a growing impression on the international circuit.

In R4 (mixed 10m air rifle standing SH2) and R5 (mixed 10m air rifle prone SH2) in Szczecin, Dahl will be challenged by a difficult field that includes Ukrainian R4 European Champion Vasyl Kovalchuk and New Zealand’s triple Paralympian Michael Johnson.

Johnson will also be in action in R5 (mixed 10m air rifle prone SH2), hoping to improve on his fifth place rankings finish from 2014, against Great Britain’s fellow top ten finisher James Bevis.

Kovalchuk’s teammate, Andrii Doroshenko, heads out in R1 (men’s 10m air rifle standing SH1) having won Worlds bronze in 2014. He will be joined on the line by the UAE’s Abdullah Sultan Alaryani, who picked up silver in the season-opening World Cup in Stoke Mandeville, Great Britain, just two weeks ago.

Slovakian world and European champion Veronika Vadovicova also had a great start to her season in Stoke Mandeville, with a win in R2 (women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1). Great Britain’s Deanna Coates, the silver medallist from the 2013 Euros, will be challenging the Slovakian once again.

The 2015 IPC Shooting World Cup in Szczecin runs from 17-21 April and will feature over 100 athletes from nearly 30 countries. Competition gets underway on Friday with R3, and concludes on 21 April.

Live results, provided by IPC Shooting’s Official Target and Results Systems Provider Sius, will be available.