US shooter Vincent Hancock wins his fourth Olympic gold in skeet

CHATEAUROUX, France (AP) — Vincent Hancock of the United States beat his student Conner Prince to capture his fourth Olympic gold medal in men's skeet, winning Saturday at the Paris Games.

Hancock coaches first-time Olympian Prince and turned round to share a hug with his silver medal-winning student after making his last two shots to ensure the gold, making 58 out of 60 shots to Prince's 57.

Hancock won skeet gold at the Olympics in 2008, 2012 and 2021 and is the only skeet shooter to take the Olympic gold more than once.

Shooters are eliminated one by one in the finals, and when Taiwan shooter Lee Meng-yuan ended in bronze-medal position, that set up a fight for the gold between Hancock and Prince, who grinned and shook hands.

Hancock had two misses close together midway through the competition but rallied to hit every one of his last 26 targets. Prince missed one shot from his final sequence of four to give Hancock the chance to close out the win.

The U.S. now has three medals in shooting at the Paris Olympics after waiting until Friday for Sagen Maddalena to win the team's first medal, a silver in women's 50-meter three positions rifle.

Earlier, Yang Jiin became the third South Korean woman to win a shooting gold medal in Paris after she edged past Camille Jedrzejewski of France in a tense tiebreaker.

Yang won the shoot-off 4-1 after both finished the competition tied on 37 hits. Veronika Major took the bronze for Hungary after winning her own shoot-off with two-time bronze medalist Manu Bhaker of India.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games