August 16, 2004 1:47 pm
Technical problems help push Parker to 8th
ATHENS, Greece - Jason Parker lost his bid for an Olympic medal in the men's 10-meter air rifle Monday, and his world record.
The American shooter and 1996 Xavier University graduate had technical problems with his $2,000 rifle, which led to a mental letdown and an eighth-place finish at the Markopoulo Olympic Shooting Centre.
``Obviously it didn't go good enough. I'm just real disappointed in the way it turned out, but you learn from it and in four more years it makes you a better shooter,'' Parker said.
Parker, 30, came into his second Olympics with high hopes after placing fifth in Sydney and winning a world championship in 2002. He also set a world record for final points during a 2003 World Cup event in Munich.
That record was 702.5 - China's Qinan Zhu won gold Monday with a 702.7 that included 599 out of a possible 600 qualifying points. Teammate Jie Li was second at 701.3, followed by Jozef Gonci of Slovakia with a 697.4.
Parker, who was seventh going into the eight-man finals, finished with a 694.5.
His problems started in the third round of qualifying when he fired back-to-back nines - a perfect score is a 10 - in a competition that requires almost perfect shooting. Parker said there was a problem with the trigger set up of his rifle.
``There's a real light first stage and a heavier second stage, and (the trigger) had a hard time catching onto that second stage. It depends a lot on the equipment, but it's more mental than it is anything else,'' said Parker, an officer in the U.S. Army marksmanship unit based in Fort Benning, Ga.
After the back-to-back nines, he handed the rifle to a coach, and then sat down to collect his thoughts. In the fourth round of the six-round qualifying session, he fired two more nines.
``It just comes down to a mental game, really,'' said Parker, who was a psychology student at Xavier. ``I had big expectations for myself. I really wanted to come back from here with a medal and this is a big disappointment right now.''
Following the competition, Parker congratulated Zhu for the win and for breaking his world record.
``To do it in the Olympics, in this amount of pressure, is just fantastic. He's a champion,'' Parker said.
American teammate Matthew Emmons finished ninth.
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