Borough Resident Selected for Team USA

The U.S. Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) recently released the roster of shooters that will represent the United States  at the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) World Shoot XVI to be held this October in Rhodes, Greece.

Borough resident J.J. Racaza, who works for the Department of Homeland Secutiry, made the roster for the men's team. He was also a recent finalist on the first season of the History Channel's Top Shot, making it to the final three before being eliminated from the competition. 

A total of 44 shooters will compete for Team USA on 11 squads in the Open, Standard, Modified, Production and Revolver divisions. In addition to the official team, there will be up to 55 shooters competing independently from the United States.

“This is without a doubt one of our strongest national teams we’ve ever fielded to compete in the World Shoot” said USPSA President, Michael Voigt. "We had such a tremendous response from shooters wanting to represent the United States in Greece that we expanded the number of official squads to 11.”

The largest group from Team USA will in the Open division, with four squads competing. On the men’s team will be K.C. Eusebio of Georgia, the current USPSA National Champion, Max Michel of Louisiana, the 2009 National Champion, Chris Tilley of North Carolina, the 2008 National Champion and J.J. Racaza of New Milford.

At the last World Shoot, held in 2008 in Bali, Indonesia, the United States won six team and four individual gold medals, and expectations are high for this year’s championship, according to Voigt.

“After 2008’s outstanding performance by Team USA, expectations are running high for this year’s competition. We’re going into the World Shoot with a wealth of both talent and international competition experience, the combination of which usually yields winning results. And that’s what we’ve come to expect from our shooters,” explained Voigt.

The IPSC World Shoot is the largest international gathering of top level pistol shooters and is held every three years. While the final number of shooters from the U.S. that will be attending the match is not yet known, Americans are the largest contingent of competitors at the event an usually account for 10-12% of all competitors.