(GunReports.com) — The 525 targets thrown in Men’s Skeet during the two-part U.S. Olympic Team Trials weren’t nearly enough to decide one of the nominees for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Sunday in Tucson, Ariz. For three worthy adversaries, Olympic fate would go to sudden-death with a 25-target shoot-out.
After a nearly flawless performance by Vincent Hancock (USAMU/Eatonton, Ga.), the 2008 Olympic gold medalist earned his way back onto another Olympic Team but held off celebrating until his skeet teammate was determined.
Jon Michael McGrath (Tulsa, Okla.) entered the event final three targets up on Mark Weeks (USAMU/Clinton Township, Mich.) and Frank Thompson (Alliance, Neb.) and in the driver’s seat for Olympic selection. Having missed just one target in 150 previous shots, McGrath dropped three targets in the final-round while Weeks and Thompson aced their final test with perfect 25s forcing a 25-target shoot-off. In Olympic selection procedures, a full 25-target round is substituted for the normal sudden-death shoot-off from station four.
Thompson would continue his late-game pressure shooting with another 25 while McGrath dropped a target on station four that would secure Thompson’s Olympic spot after Weeks’ two missed clays. McGrath would question the miss on the second double, but none of the three referees saw any piece of the target break or any of the flash powder puff.
In Women’s Trap, 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Corey Cogdell (Eagle River, Alaska) garnered her second Olympic Team spot. Down six targets coming into Tucson, the Alaska native took control with a second-day 94 and would cruise to a 10-point win Sunday.
