U.S. Army Soldiers Win Silver Medal in Trap Mixed Team at Cyprus World Cup

Sgt. 1st Class Glenn Eller and Sgt. Alicia Gough won the Silver Medal in the Trap Mixed Team event at the International Shooting Sports Federation Shotgun World Cup in Larnaca, Cyprus March 25 - April 3.

Eller and Gough, who are both marksmanship instructors/competitive shooters for the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit out of Fort Benning, Georgia, were competing at the ISSF World Cup as part of USA Shooting’s World Cup Shotgun Team, along with other civilian marksmen and USAMU Soldiers.

To qualify for the Medal Match Final, both Soldiers had to compete in three 50-target qualification rounds against 22 other teams from across the world. Eller and Gough finished the qualification rounds with a combined score of 139, placing them in a three-way tie for second place with Slovakia’s team of Adrian Drobny and Zuzana Rehab Stefecekova and Portugal’s team of Armelim Filipe Rodrigues and Ana Rita Rodrigues. However, after a shoot-off, Eller and Gough managed to claim second place behind Portugal’s team of Joao Acevedo and Maria Ines Coelho De Barros, who had a combined score of 141.

The second place position moved the American Soldiers into the Gold Medal Match against the Acevedo and Coelho De Barros, where the outcome would be either a Gold or Silver Medal. After five, five-target rounds, the American duo had to settle for the Silver Medal.

This medal makes the third for Gough in the 2023 season so far. The Burlington, Wisconsin native earned the Bronze Medal in Women’s Trap and the Gold Medal in Mixed Trap Team (along with her USAMU/USA Shooting teammate, Staff Sgt. Will Hinton) at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Doha, Qatar March 4 -13. Add in the fact that this Soldier just became a new mother in January, and then qualified for the U.S. World Cup Team in February, and those three medals are even that much more impressive.

Eller, a Katy, Texas native, has his share of accomplishments as well. This five-time Olympian claimed the Gold Medal in Men’s Double Trap at the 2008 Olympics, where he also set both an Olympic Record and Final Olympic Record. He also has eleven other World Cup medals, four World Championship medals, and a Pan American Gold Medal.

Fellow USAMU/USA Shooting teammates, Staff Sgt. Dustan Taylor and Sgt. Rachel Tozier, earned their way into the Men’s Skeet and Women’s Trap Finals as well, placing fourth and seventh respectively.

Taylor also made it into the Mixed Skeet Team Finals with his USA Shooting teammate, six-time Olympic medalist, Kimberly Rhode, where they placed fourth behind Chile.

The next World Cup that USAMU Shotgun Soldiers will compete in, as a part of the U.S. Shotgun Team, is the 2nd ISSF Grand Prix De France in Châteauroux, France. This is the same range that will be used in the 2024 Olympic Games.