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Saturday, Aug. 16, 2008

Eatonton native wins Olympic gold medal

Eatonton native, Vincent Hancock, 19, won a gold medal in the Olympics in Beijing on Saturday morning, snagging his first-ever Olympics medal in skeet shooting.

Hancock, a member of the Army’s Marksmanship Unit based out of Ft. Benning, beat Norway’s Tore Brovold in a shoot-off to win the gold medal, according to the Associated Press.

With the win, Hancock became the second American shooter to win a shotgun event, after Glenn Eller picked up the gold in double trap shooting Tuesday.

Already a world-acclaimed skeet shooter, Hancock won the 2005 world championship at the age of 16, and was named shooter of the year by the International Shooting Sport Federation, as well as USA Shooting. He finished third in last year's world championship.

Of the 14 shooting gold medalists at this year’s Olympics, he is the youngest.