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August 16, 2004 1:54 pm

Ill-timed peek costly for teenage trap shooter

By MIKE PRATER

Gannett News Service

ATHENS, Greece - Shooter Collyn Loper has some explaining to do to her father and to her teachers back at Oak Mountain High School in Birmingham, Ala.

The 17-year-old high school senior and Jackson, Miss., native finished fourth in women's trap Monday at the Summer Olympics in Athens.

She missed out on a potential medal by one point because she broke a simple family rule: Never look at the scoreboard.

Loper was tied for third after 97 of 100 shots - 75 in the preliminary round, and 25 in the eight-woman finals. With three shots to go, she took a quick peek at the giant scoreboard and noticed that she was locked in a battle for bronze with Bo Na Lee of Korea.

On her next attempt with a 12-gauge shotgun, she missed the flying clay target, and Lee closed the deal with two direct hits on a windy afternoon at the Markopoulo Olympic Shooting Centre.

Suzanne Balogh of Australia won gold with 88 points, Martia Quintanal of Spain was second with 84, and Lee finished with 83. Loper, who comes from a family of hunters and keeps a poster of Annie Oakley in her home, had 82 points in her Olympic debut.

``I look at the board and I'm like, `Hey look, I'm tied for third,' and then I missed my next one,'' Loper said. ``I knew the second I called for the bird I was going to miss it.''

She was down on the competition floor still doing interviews while her father, Brian, was in the stands shaking his head.

``That's a standing rule we have, we never look at the scoreboard, and if that's what happened, that's not good,'' he said.

Dad's misgivings lasted about as long as it takes his daughter to blast one of the pink clay targets out of the sky.

``If I had to lay down a bet, I wouldn't have bet that we were fourth place or better,'' he said. ``Against the best shooters in the world, the odds were really against her. ... It's bittersweet, but still we're proud of what happened today.''

Had Loper tied with Lee, there would have been a sudden-death shootout.

Now it's back to real life for Loper, who has been AWOL from Oak Mountain since Aug. 12. The honor roll student who hopes to study pre-med chemistry at Vanderbilt - she was born blind in her right eye and is thinking about being an eye doctor - is skipping school for a few more days to watch the rest of the shooting competition.

She returns to Oak Mountain on Aug. 25 and plans to walk the halls proudly. She did beat defending Olympic champion Daina Gudzineviciute of Lithuania and Sydney silver medallist E Gao of China, who is No. 1 in the world rankings. Neither reached the final.

``It would have been nice to go back with a medal, but just being over here has been good,'' she said. ``I'm 17 and I just made a final at the Olympics. I can't complain. I'm actually going to go celebrate tonight.''

And how does a girl who listens to alternative music and competes in tennis shoes, faded jeans, a red T-shirt and a white visor plan to do that?

``Not by drinking,'' she said with a laugh. ``Just being with family and friends.''

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