For the first time in the history of the discipline, a men wins two titles back to back. The American shooter hugged his wife and his baby as first thing right after the victory.
USA’s record man did it again. Vincent Hancock – the title defender – won his second Skeet Men Gold medal back to back. Nobody, before him, had won two consecutive titles in skeet.
His last medal, before London 2012? The 2008 Olympic Gold of Beijing. Hancock - probably the best skeet shooter of the world - did not win anything in between.
“I thought about stopping, after shooting 116 – my worst score ever – at the ISSF World Cup in Slovenia, last year. My family helped to start again.” Hancock said today, after hitting 148 targets (123+25) establishing the new Olympic and Final Olympic Records, shattering his own 2008’s records.
Station 8 gave him the victory, with 2 targets of advantage on his followers. After the last shot, he run to hug his wife and his baby, who were following the match from the stands.
“My family gave me a huge support. I know they there watching me. They have been part of this, since the beginning.”
Hancock won his medal in difficult weather conditions, but the rain did not scare him "I will take a gold medal over not winning anything over a little rain any day." He commented.
"I was expecting rain and I like inclement weather because more people are going to drop a few targets on those days. I had to be on the top of my game all the time. Sometimes I changed my entire shooting routine because of the weather. But after Beijing I decided never to do that again." The 23-year old shooter said.
Getting back in shape was not easy, Hancock said, and took him months to find the right feeling. “I thought about it a lot and decided I was determined to get back and get on the podium again knowing for a brief moment 'You are the best in the world'. That is what drove me over the last seven months, knowing I could add another medal for the greatest country in the world kept me going.”
Denmark’s Andres Golding pocketed the Silver, today. With a total score of 146 targets (122+24), he secured his first Olympic medal ever, helping Denmark in the overall medal standings of these XXX Olympic Games. Qualified second to the final, the Danish shooter shot near-to-perfect in the final, missing only one target on his 17th shot. It was a great success, for the 1984’s shooter, who is not a professional shooter, and had to pay his training working as a carpenter.
"It's a very good feeling to win silver. My background is half shooter, half worker. I've been shooting for the past 10 years but I can't live off shooting. I've had a very good coach, Italy’s Pietro Genga, over the last four years who has helped me a lot to get here today."
Valeriy Shomin (RUS) and Nasser Al-Attiya (QAT) both finished the session on 144 and a shoot-off was called to decide the bronze medallist. Al- Attiya, who is also the 2011 Paris-Dakar Rally champion driver, put another attainment in his stellar career by collecting the bronze medal when the Russian shooter missed his sixth target in the shoot-off.
Al-Attiya had lost the Bronze eight years ago, in Athens, in a shoot-off. "My dream is coming true. I'm so happy to finish with a bronze. We worked very hard for this."
"I was leading the Dakar rally this year, when I received an SMS from the federation. We were not getting a wild card, so I had to come back home to qualify at the Asian Championship. I quit the Dakar. It has been hard because I really wanted to win again but when you go to Olympic Games it is completely different."
Italy’s Luigi Lodde finished today’s match fifth palce with 143 hits, behind Shomin, followed by Czech Republic’s Jan Sychra with 143 hits as well.
There was a major upset in the qualification round. World No.1 and runner-up at Beijing 2008 Tore Brovold (NOR) did not make it to the final, finishing 27th in the 36-man field.