Two Army sergeants first class came up short of the Olympic podium in London on Monday — one on the wrestling mat, the other on the shooting range. Sgt. 1st Class Dremiel Byers, making his second trip to the Olympics, was knocked out in the quarterfinal round of the 120-kilogram Greco-Roman bracket, falling 1-0, 1-0 to Turkey’s Riza Kayaalp. Kayaalp went on to lose in the semifinals, which eliminated Byers from bronze medal consideration. It’s the second Olympic trip for Byers, who also reached the quarterfinals in Beijing. He won two matches in China to reach the round of eight,…
Browsing: Jason Parker
Team USA shooting qualifications wrapped up Monday at Fort Benning, Ga., and the final qualifier wasn’t a surprise given the setting. Army Sgt. 1st Class Jason Parker, a member of the Benning-based Army Marksmanship Unit, qualified for his fourth Olympic team by taking top honors in the 50-meter three-position rifle event. He’ll join fellow Army Sgt. 1st Class Keith Sanderson, who earned a spot Friday in the 25-meter rapid-fire pistol event, on the now-complete, military-heavy U.S. shooting squad. Check out these posts for more about U.S. shooters, or click here for the full team’s bios on the USA Shooting website.…
Two spots on the U.S. Olympic pistol team are spoken for, and Army Sgt. 1st Class Daryl Szarenski has one of them. But adding another one couldn’t hurt. Szarenski, already en route to his fourth Olympics after earning a berth in the 10-meter air pistol event, will compete for a 50-meter free pistol spot at the Olympic qualification event at Fort Benning, Ga., beginning Thursday. He took 14th in the 50-meter event at the Beijing games last year. The qualifier, which will decide four open spots pistol spots and three smallbore rifle spots for the London games, runs through June…