Shooters Distinguish Themselves At Top-Level Competitions Multi-title holder Rob Leatham became the champion of the United States Practical Shooting Association’s inaugural 1911 Single Stack Championship, with a decisive victory at the Barry, Ill., PASA park shooting facility. At the Brazil World Cup, Sgt. 1st Class Thomas A. Tamas of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit and a Columbus, Ga., native, won a gold medal in the free rifle prone competition, clinching an Olympic quota slot for the USA at the 2008 Olympic Games. At World Cup USA in Kerrville, Texas, Connie Smotek of Lyons, Texas, won the gold medal in women’s skeet, taking the title in a shoot-off with Russia’s Svetlana Demina. Italy’s Ennio Falco took the men’s skeet title. Four men, including 17-year-old Scholastic Clay Target Program participant Vincent Hancock of Eatonton, Ga., were knotted with the second highest score, requiring a shoot-off that ended with Norway’s Tore Brovold and Denmark’s Michael Nielsen taking second and third, respectively. Hancock’s international travel schedule will slow down this summer, because he will be attending boot camp. He plans on joining the Army Reserves next fall, during his senior year of high school, then joining the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit after graduation.