Rosario makes history but unable to avert slump

LONDON – Brian Rosario is in the record books as the first Filipino to hit a perfect 25 in any level of Olympic shooting competition but even as he blasted all the clay targets in the third of five rounds, the two-time Southeast Asian Games veteran could score only 110 of 125 points to finish 31st of 36 at the Royal Artillery Barracks here last Tuesday.

Rosario, 30, shot down 22 of 25 birds in eight stations on the first round then fell to 19 of 25 in the second before posting a perfect score of 25 in the third last Monday. He was back on the range the next day to complete the last two rounds. Only the top six finishers at the end of five rounds advanced to the finals. Rosario outshot Peru’s Nicolas Pacheco Espinosa, Australia’s Clive Barton, Switzerland’s Fabio Ramella, Korea’s Cho Yongseong and Egypt’s Azmy Mehelba.

After missing six in the second round, Rosario was ruled out of contention. He felt no pressure in the third round, blasting each clay target coming from the high and low houses. In that round, Rosario was among only nine of 36 who registered a perfect 25. Philippine National Shooting Association president Mikee Romero and coach Gay Corral said Rosario proved his capability by not missing a single target in that eventful round. Rosario is the first Filipino Olympic in skeet shooting since 1972.

What ruined Rosario’s chances to shine was his harrowing slump in the second round where he missed six targets. “After missing three in the first round, I was still in contention,” said Rosario. “And I was fine until the fourth station in the second round. I missed three in a row. Then, I missed three more in the fifth station. I couldn’t explain it. It wasn’t the wind. It just happens. I drew a mental blank.”

Corral said in three weeks of practice shooting at the Churchill range, Rosario was averaging close to 25. “He never went below 20 so scoring 19 in the second round was a surprise,” said Corral. “We didn’t expect it. At Churchill, he regularly shot 23, 24 and even 25. He would go down to 21 only because of experimentation. I think the wind had something to do with it.”

The Royal Artillery Barracks had three bays where the shotgun shooters fired at targets. Corral said the wind picked up in the third round and affected the flight of the targets. “It had nothing to do with Brian’s timing,” she explained. “Churchill was almost a replica of the Barracks range so Brian was comfortable until the third bay. When he finished the fourth station, I saw Brian slump on a chair and shake his head. Ordinarily, he doesn’t sit in between stations. That string of three straight misses was tough.”

In the fourth round, Rosario missed once in the fourth, fifth and sixth stations. The miss on the fourth was a high target on the reverse doubles, the fifth was a high doubles and the sixth a low single. In the fifth round, the misses were once in the fourth, fifth and eighth stations. The miss on the fourth was another high reverse doubles, the fifth was also a high reverse doubles and the eighth was the last bird which he rarely flubs.

“I did my best at pinaghandaan ko to the extent that I could do with the help of the POC, PSC and PNSA but the range was extremely difficult,” said Rosario. “On our official training practice day, we were given only one round instead of three because of strong rains and lightning. For safety reasons, they stopped our official practice as they were afraid the barrels of our shotguns would attract lightning. That’s not an excuse but the official training day is very important to us because it sets the tone of the next two days of competition and we wanted to show what we learned from our simulation these past months.”

Romero said as an Olympic rookie, Rosario will gain from this experience and improve on his showing in future competitions. Romero isn’t ruling out Rosario qualifying for the next Olympics. “Brian proved he can do it, he can score a 25 when no Filipino has ever done it in the Olympic shooting,” said Romero. “This is a game of preparation. It takes a lot of practice to shoot a perfect score. The Olympics is a different level of competition. Brian was up against the world’s best shooters. After two rounds, Brian was out of contention but promised to fight until the end and he did. Shooting is a very difficult sport and may even be the most difficult because it involves a lot of mental focus. His performance in London is something he can build from.”