London 2012 medal count: US shooter Vincent Hancock defends skeet title
America's Vincent Hancock retained his Olympic men's skeet crown on Tuesday after a flawless display of shooting in the final at London's Royal Artillery Barracks.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: July 31, 2012 08:20 PM IST
American soldier Vincent Hancock retained his Olympic men's skeet crown on Tuesday after a flawless display of shooting in the final at London's Royal Artillery Barracks.
Olympics 2012 | Schedule | Medals Tally
Denmark's Anders Golding won silver while Nasser al-Attiyah of Qatar took bronze after a shoot-off with Russia's Valeriy Shomin.
Hancock -- a US Army sergeant who trains soldiers in marksmanship at Fort Benning in Georgia --became the first two-time winner of the event at the Olympics with an Olympic record of 148.
The 23-year-old topped qualifying, hitting 123 targets out of 125, one ahead of Golding and never looked remotely in trouble of slipping from top spot during the final.
Skeet requires a competitor to hit a fast-moving clay target. In the men's competition there are 125 targets in qualifying, with the top six shooters progressing to the final, where they fire at a further 25 targets.
The score in the final is added to the qualification round score.
Hancock's gold means a US skeet double after Kim Rhode won the women's title, equalling the world record in the process.
China, who topped the Beijing shooting medals table with five golds, ahead of the United States, also have two shooting golds. South Korea and Romania have one gold apiece.