Parker overcomes tricky trigger to finish eighth in MAR

[USAMU]

By Tim Hipps
USACFSC Public Affairs

ATHENS, Greece - Sgt. 1st Class Jason Parker watched his world record fall Aug. 16 while shooting to an eighth-place finish in the men's 10-meter air rifle event in the Summer Olympic Games.
China's Qinan Zhu won the gold medal with a final world record of 702.7 points, eclipsing Parker's world mark of 702.5 established at the 2003 Munich World Cup. "The scores keep going up," Parker said. "It seems like a world record is set about every year or two. It just gives you another goal to shoot for. You just have to do it on the day that counts." China's Jie Li won the silver medal with 701.3 points. Slovakia's Josef Gonci took the bronze medal with a 697.4 total at Markopoulo Olympic Shooting Centre. Parker, a member of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit at Fort Benning, Ga., quickly shot a perfect sixth series score of 100 points in the qualification round.
"That's the only way to make the final when it's that close because that's how they break the tie," said Parker's coach, Army Reserve Maj. David Johnson of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program. "That gave him a chance." Parker studied the scoreboard to see his name land in the final spot of the eight-marksman final. He then notched 100.5 points in the final round to finish with a 694.5 total. "I got in the final and didn't take advantage of it, just shot a couple of bad shots," Parker said. "But the guy who won it shot a world record so I would've had to been on it the whole match." Parker overcame a tricky trigger that contributed to two costly 98-point series in his qualification round. He managed 99 or 100 points in his other four stanzas. "I had a little technical problem with my rifle," explained Parker, 30, of Omaha, Neb. "The trigger wasn't functioning quite right, but I got it fixed." "The gun broke," said Johnson, 40, a native of Mount Holly, N.J., who lives in Colorado Springs, Colo. "I took it and ran it down the hall to the gunsmith, had it repaired, and came back. It affected him for several shots, but he did a real good job of dealing with it." Parker already is looking forward to the 2008 Beijing Games. "There were certain parts I thought I shot very, very good, and there were other parts that I didn't handle too good," he said. "I'm going to take those parts that I didn't handle too well, learn from them, and come back in four more years a stronger shooter.