“The medals were there for the taking.”
That was the quick and dirty assessment by U.S. shooter Derrick Mein after a fifth-place finish in Men’s Trap on Tuesday at the Olympics.
It was the second close but no cigar performance by American shooters in these games – Maddalena Sagen finished fourth in Air Rifle – that must be causing a bit of concern by the USA Shooting hierarchy after a six-medal performance in Tokyo and three medals in Rio de Janeiro.
Paris currently is a big goose egg.
For Mein, 38, he may never have been under such heat with a temperature of over 90 degrees in Chateauroux and the additional heat of chasing a medal; the competition was somewhat an endurance test, which ultimately Mein failed.
In fact, his entire Olympic experience was under the heat, some of that coming from his own mistakes. He missed two targets in the first eight attempts of the first round, forcing the Kansan to claw and scratch his way back to a position of not only respectability but contention in the next four rounds.
After the second miss in Monday’s qualifying, Mein missed hitting one target in the following 117 targets and went on a streak of hitting 89 consecutive targets to get into a 6 for two shoot-off for the medal round, where Mein continued his hot shooting, hitting 13 in a row that got him a spot in the six-man finals, eventually sitting in the sixth position.
“I did all I could do today,” Mein said after the qualifying rounds were completed. “And I know I gave myself a chance. That's all you can ask for. You know, it's just wait and see. But I feel like I did everything I could. And if it's not enough, well, it's not enough.”
Sitting in sixth position is not ideal, but with a real chance, Mein made what seemed at the time a fatal error. He missed two targets in the first six of the finals and again put himself back behind the same eight-ball, just as he was after the first round on Monday.
After the second miss, Mein shook his head and looked towards his coach, Jay Waldron, to confirm what he already knew: he was moving slightly instead of staying still, putting his shot off.
The confirmation led to Mein hitting 16 straight targets and putting himself firmly into the medal fight. Still, near the end of stage one, which led to the elimination round, Mein missed and then, in the elimination round, again missed the fifth and last target, which, if he hit, would have guaranteed him fourth place over Jean Pierre Brol Cardenas of Guatemala, who would go on to win bronze and was on the edge of silver until he also missed at the end of his elimination stage.
“Unfortunately, when you're stuck with the six bib, it's hard to overcome sometimes,” Mein said. “But it is what it is. You know, I gave my best effort. I was proud to be out there representing the USA.”
After Tokyo, USA, Shooting Shotgun Coach Jay Waldron said that Mein became totally committed to the game, went 100% into the international trap game, and devoted all his efforts to returning to the Olympic Games.
Now Mein will return home, knowing that if he doesn’t make it back to the Olympics in Los Angeles, his last competitive shot will have been a miss, which is unacceptable to Mein.
“Get back home, start working out,” Mein said of his future. “I got room for improvement. Hopefully, 28 will be in my book going forward.”
— Alex Miceli
USA Shooting Final Shotgun Results
Men’s Trap Final
-Derrick Mein: 5th place
USA Shooting Final Air Rifle Results
Mixed Team Air Rifle
-Sagen Maddalena and Ivan Roe: 18th place, qualification score of 624.9
-Mary Tucker and Rylan Kissell: 13th place, qualification score of 626
Women’s 10m Air Rifle
-Sagen Maddalena: 4th place, finals score of 207.7
-Mary Tucker: 32nd place, qualification score of 625.2
Men’s 10m Air Rifle
-Ivan Roe: 34th place (tie), qualification score of 626.3
-Rylan Kissell: 34th place (tie), qualification score of 626.3
Women’s 10m Air Pistol
-Katelyn Abeln: 24th place, qualification score of 570-16x
-Alexis Lagan: 25th place, qualification score of 570-15x