Brothers Justin and Kevin George of Corcoran have won the bronze medal in the team competition at the Long Range World Rifle Championships which were recently held in New Zealand.
At the World Rifle Championships, which is like the Olympics in that it is held once every four years, Justin and Kevin competed against other countries to bring home the Bronze medal.
According to their father Jimmy George a bronze wasn’t what they were hoping for and the duo expected to do better. Justin had gun problems through the first half but Kevin picked up the slack by shooting extremely well. They fixed Justin’s problems halfway through the event and it was enough to bring home third place. Justin and Kevin were one of two teams representing the United States. They took the Bronze behind Gold medalists Australia and Silver Medalists New Zealand.
The brothers had 15 shots apiece at 330, 600, 900 and 1,000 yards. Justin was one of only two competitors who shot a perfect score of 50 throughout the event. In the Under 25 individual competition, with over 300 competitors, a snag in scheduling caused the George’s to not be able to compete in the Under 25 competition. With so many shooters signed up, the coordinators of the event said they would not hold the individual Under 25 competition and instead count their previous scores from the World match. Although they would have liked to compete again, with their previous scores being counted in the Under 25 competition Justin still finished ranked 12th and younger brother Kevin finished at 17th overall. Kevin was the youngest competitor at the event.
The duo had to qualify to get invited to attend the world championships and they did so by doing well at competitions held late last year. Justin and Kevin were the only two shooters on the 10-man USA team going to New Zealand who were from California.
Both are members of the California Grizzlies rifle team and the USA Young Eagles Rifle team. This past summer as members of the California Grizzlies, they competed in the National Championships which were held at Camp Perry, Ohio. They set a new National record in the six-man team match. They then traveled to Camp Atterbery in Indiana and competed in the United States Long Range Championships as members of the Young Eagles Rifle team. They won the four-man team match. Justin also brought home the Doc Aitken Trophy, which is awarded to shooters who win the Palma Match which is held during the World Championships. The trophy is presented in memory of Doc Aitken. Winners of the trophy have the highest combined score shooting at 800, 900 and 1,000 yards.
The Young Eagles needed 10 shooters to compete in the World Championships in New Zealand so the team had to also compete in the Canadian Long Range Championships in order to qualify. In Canada, Justin and Kevin were both on the six-man team. They won the International Short Range Championships, the International Long Range Championships, and the Gold Medal in the America Match and qualified for the trip to New Zealand.
Kevin is the youngest shooter on the squad and the only person on the team who is still in high school. Kevin, who is 14-years-old is a freshman at Corcoran High and has earned the rank of Master Shooter. He has been a member of the California Grizzlies team since 2016 and just became a member of the USA Young Eagles team last February. Justin has been on the Grizzlies since 2014 and became a member of the Young Eagles in 2015. He competed at the World Championships in 2015 and brought home a Silver Medal. He has earned the rank of High Master Shooter. Justin is currently attending California Baptist University in Riverside studying Civil Engineering.
According to their father, Jimmy, both Justin and Kevin are getting ready for the 2023 World Championships which will be held in South Africa.
“We start preparing now,” Jimmy said. “We have the state championships coming up at the end of the month.”
Justin and Kevin are sons of Maria and Jimmy George of Corcoran.
