BEIJING, China (August 10, 2008) — The Women’s 10m Air Pistol event was held Sunday and the Men’s Trap competition concluded at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing with U.S. shooters Dominic Grazioli (San Antonio, Texas) and Bret Erickson (Bennington, Neb./Muenster, Texas) taking the 22nd and 23rd spots in trap, while Brenda Shinn (Riverside, Calif.) and Beki Snyder (Colorado Springs, Colo.) finished in 37th and 41st places respectively in air pistol.
U.S. Air Force Shooter Dominic Grazioli (San Antonio, Texas) finished in 22nd place in Men’s Trap Sunday with an overall score of 113 targets, while forty-seven year old three-time Olympian Bret Erickson (Bennington, Neb.) took 23rd place, also with 113 targets.
“Obviously I wish I could have performed better,” Grazioli, 44, said of his performance. “I didn’t live up to my capabilities, but overall I had a great time and now I have to decide whether or not I am going to retire.”
David Kostelecky of the Czech Republic captured the gold in Men’s Trap, shooting a perfect score of 25 in the final, finishing with a total of 146 targets. Italy’s Giovanni Pellielo won the silver medal with 143 targets. Olympic gold medalists Michael Diamond of Australia and Alexey Alipov of Russia each finished the final tied at 142 targets. In the shoot-off, Alipov took the bronze medal after hitting three targets to Diamond’s two.
Shooting in her first Olympic Games, Shinn finished 37th today after firing a score of 373. Shinn, 46, who began shooting in 1979 and stopped competing in 1987 after the birth of her son, took up the sport again in 2006. Her goal when she came back to shooting was to make the 2012 Olympic team.
“To come in at my age after only shooting competitively for the past two years, it’s amazing for me to be at the Olympics,” said Shin. “Of course I am disappointed with my performance, but it’s been such a great experience and one I am going to build from.”
Three-time Olympian Snyder ended the competition in 41st place with a score of 370. Snyder will compete in Women’s 25m Sport Pistol, her second event at the Beijing Games, on Wednesday, August 13. Snyder will be looking to bring home her first Olympic medal.
The gold medal in air pistol went to China’s Guo Wenjun, the number one ranked female air pistol shooter in the world. Guo finished in first place with an overall score of 492.3, which is a new Olympic record. Natalia Paderina of Russia took the silver with a total score of 489.1 and Georgia’s Nino Salukvadze claimed the bronze with 487.4.
Day Three of the shooting competition at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing will feature the Men’s 10m Air Rifle and Women’s Trap qualification rounds as well as the finals in each event.
Two-time Olympian and U.S. Army Marksmanship (USAMU) member Jason Parker (Omaha, Neb.) will be vying for his first spot on the podium in an Olympic Games when he competes in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle event. Nineteen-year-old West Point Cadet Stephen Scherer (Billerica, Mass.) will be representing the U.S. in men’s air rifle on his first U.S. Olympic Team.
Twenty-one year old Corey Cogdell, (Eagle River, Alaska) will be competing in the only spot available to the U.S. team in Women’s Trap at the Beijing Olympic Games. Cogdell has only been shooting International Trap competitively for a little over two years. She captured the bronze medal at the 2007 World Cup in Korea in her first international competition and went on to claim the bronze at the Pan American Games.
For complete results from the shooting competition at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, please visit the following link on the official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games: results.beijing2008.cn
