Time to end cumulative scoring

LONDON – Skeet shooter Brian Rosario faltered in the second round of Olympic competitions in the men’s individual event at the Royal Artillery Barracks here last Monday and fell out of championship contention even as he still had 75 targets to down in three more rounds.

Because the 36 competitors were so evenly matched, a poor performance in just one round was irreversible. That’s what happened to Rosario. In the first round, he missed three clay targets and had a score of 22. In skeet shooting, everyone starts off with a perfect score of 125 and a point is deducted for every miss. With 22, Rosario was still in the running for a top six slot. Under competition rules, only the top six finishers advance to the finals after five qualifying rounds with a maximum score of 125.

But in the second round, Rosario drew a blank crossing the fourth and fifth stations. He failed to hit three in a row in the fourth stop and missed twice more in the fifth. In between the two tough stations, Rosario slumped on a chair and hung his head down to express dejection. He usually walks with confidence from one station to another. But this time, after the harrowing slump, Rosario was downcast. What hastened his collapse was three straight misses in the fourth end.

Then, in the last round of the day, Rosario did as Philippine National Shooting Association president Mikee Romero expected. He registered a perfect score of 25. Unfortunately, the power surge came too late. With nine misses of 75 targets, Rosario had no chance to advance even if he swept the last two rounds. Before coming out to shoot after a one-hour lunch interval, Rosario was relieved of the pressure – he had already been eliminated so there was nothing more to lose.

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“I spoke to Brian before the third round and told him to go out there and prove himself,” said Romero. “Without pressure, I predicted he would score 24. He did even better and hit all 25 targets. I’m proud of him. He could’ve just folded up since he was already out of contention. But Brian went out there firing away.”

The cumulative system robs the excitement of a long series because as what happened to Rosario, one mistake could be fatal and if it strikes early, the succeeding rounds could be academic. Instead of hanging out to an obsolete formula, shooting should follow archery’s cue.

In archery, the international federation has done away with cumulative scoring because it doesn’t encourage a bounce back. In previous Olympics, archers shot 72 arrows to determine their seeding then they faced off in head-to-head duels with 12 arrows apiece. Now, the head-to-head matches are best-of-five affairs or a race to six points. Archers start from scratch whenever they battle in a set or end. Filipino Olympic archers Mark Javier and Rachelle Anne Cabral-de la Cruz agreed that the new format is more exciting because it rules out carry-over baggage. You can shoot poorly on one end and lose by a large margin but that’s water under the bridge since every set begins with a clean slate.

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Shooting might want to adapt a similar non-cumulative scoring system. In Rosario’s case, a shaky start was all it took to eliminate him from contention, rendering his last two rounds academic. Yesterday, he was back on the range to complete his remaining program of 50 targets although his scores no longer made a difference. Rosario vowed to fight until the end, no matter how far he was in the standings.

Archery can teach shooting a lesson or two in fair play. Rosario shot a perfect 25 in the third round but who’ll remember the feat if he doesn’t climb the podium. Archers, on the other hand, enjoy the luxury of a comeback, no matter how badly they may have played early. The cumulative nature of scoring isn’t attractive to fans and TV will probably like it down-to-the-wire.

It’s to Rosario’s credit that in spite of everything, he’s dead set to go out with a bang. Never mind if he has no more chance of victory. He remained as focused as in the early rounds yesterday. From one window closing, another is opening for Romero who has bought the Powerade franchise in the PBA and wants to transform it into an instant championship contender.