By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          Vincent Hancock barely made the Olympic men’s skeet finals.

          Then he went and set an Olympic record.

          The Gatewood grad and former Eatonton resident hit 59 of 60 targets in the skeet final and beat Jesper Hansen of Denmark by four to win his third gold medal.

          Hancock is one of two Central Georgia connections in Tokyo.   Washington County grad Allisha Gray is part of the U.S. women’s basketball 3-on-3 team, and has keyed the 4-0 pool-play start.

          Hancock, now living with his family in Fort Worth, had to work to qualify for the men’s skeet final, which started not long after qualifying finished. And qualifying took extra time.

          The Gatewood grad was perfect in the first four qualification rounds – the only competitor to do so – and was on target to tie the world record and break the Olympic record of 123.

But he was off in the final round and hit 22 of 25 for a score of 122, one of six to engage in a shoot-off for the final three spots.

          Tammaro Cassandro of Italy and Eric Delaunday of France each hit 124 of 125 targets to tie for first in qualifying, and Eetu Kallioinen of Finland was third with 123.

          Hancock, who graduated from Troy in 2014 and is an Army veteran, was fourth after the shoot-off entering the finals, where he was the second of the contenders to miss, off target on his 26th shot. Abdullah Alrashidi eventually dropped from contention, leaving Hancock to battle it out with Hansen.

          Not for long. The two had reached the late stages, and Hansen – already trailing by one – missed two more, and Hancock sealed the deal to become the first skeet shooter to win three gold medals.

          Amber English won the women’s skeet to give America a gold sweep in the event.

Gray keying 3-on-3 run

          Gray had two points in the team’s 22-11 win over Romania, but bounced back a few hours later to drop eight points in eight minutes in the 20-16 win over Russian Olympic Committee.

          The Americans, the only undefeated team in pool play, returned to action at 4:55 a.m. Monday against Italy, with an 8 a.m. tipoff against China, 4-1.