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Log inThese Soldiers Are Olympic Hot Shots
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These Soldiers Are Olympic Hot Shots
by Outspoken on Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:59 pm
These Soldiers Are Olympic Hot Shots
Army Provides Core of Shooting Teams
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
FORT BENNING, Ga. -- U.S. Army sharpshooter Pfc. Vincent Hancock raises his shotgun and fluidly traces the arc of two clay targets hurtling across the range before him at 55 mph, breaking each one with flawless accuracy.
The 19-year-old skeet competitor, headed to his first Olympics next month, knows that he must sustain that perfection to clinch a gold medal. But after setting a world record at the World Cup Italy championship in Milan in June 2007, the young marksman is confident that target is within reach.
"I was just really zoned in, that's what it really takes to shoot a perfect round, to be in your zone," said Hancock, describing the record-breaking round in which he hit 150 of 150 clay discs -- an accomplishment he says he will have to match to win the gold medal in Beijing.
After surprising himself by shooting the first 100 targets perfectly, Hancock said the last 50 seemed effortless. "It was just so easy, it felt like I didn't even have to try. I would just step on the station and my gun would automatically go to the right spot and break the target every time." The challenge now, he said between practice sessions at the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit ranges at Fort Benning, is to figure out "how to get to that point very easily."
Hancock is one of six marksmen the Army is sending to the Summer Olympics, and the soldiers are expected to prove a core strength of the U.S. teams. Since its creation in 1956, Army Marksmanship Unit members have won more than 40 world championships and 22 Olympic medals, more than half of the U.S. total in shooting in that time. Prospects are good for more medals this year; for example, the U.S. double-trap team boasts three soldiers in the top 12 rankings, including two in the top five.
Three of the Olympic marksmen are on the shotgun team: Hancock in skeet, where competitors fire at targets thrown from high and low houses, and Spec. Walton Glenn Eller III and Spec. Jeffrey G. Holguin in double trap, where marksmen shoot at two clay targets thrown simultaneously from an underground bunker.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/08/AR2008070803182.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Army Provides Core of Shooting Teams
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
FORT BENNING, Ga. -- U.S. Army sharpshooter Pfc. Vincent Hancock raises his shotgun and fluidly traces the arc of two clay targets hurtling across the range before him at 55 mph, breaking each one with flawless accuracy.
The 19-year-old skeet competitor, headed to his first Olympics next month, knows that he must sustain that perfection to clinch a gold medal. But after setting a world record at the World Cup Italy championship in Milan in June 2007, the young marksman is confident that target is within reach.
"I was just really zoned in, that's what it really takes to shoot a perfect round, to be in your zone," said Hancock, describing the record-breaking round in which he hit 150 of 150 clay discs -- an accomplishment he says he will have to match to win the gold medal in Beijing.
After surprising himself by shooting the first 100 targets perfectly, Hancock said the last 50 seemed effortless. "It was just so easy, it felt like I didn't even have to try. I would just step on the station and my gun would automatically go to the right spot and break the target every time." The challenge now, he said between practice sessions at the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit ranges at Fort Benning, is to figure out "how to get to that point very easily."
Hancock is one of six marksmen the Army is sending to the Summer Olympics, and the soldiers are expected to prove a core strength of the U.S. teams. Since its creation in 1956, Army Marksmanship Unit members have won more than 40 world championships and 22 Olympic medals, more than half of the U.S. total in shooting in that time. Prospects are good for more medals this year; for example, the U.S. double-trap team boasts three soldiers in the top 12 rankings, including two in the top five.
Three of the Olympic marksmen are on the shotgun team: Hancock in skeet, where competitors fire at targets thrown from high and low houses, and Spec. Walton Glenn Eller III and Spec. Jeffrey G. Holguin in double trap, where marksmen shoot at two clay targets thrown simultaneously from an underground bunker.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/08/AR2008070803182.html?wpisrc=newsletter
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Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
