Wednesday, July 11, 2007


Jul. 11, 2007 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) --
For years, Eagle River trapshooter Corey Cogdell carried a little rubber chicken in her pocket whenever she competed.

She called it Doug.

Whenever Cogdell felt nervous or needed reassurance during competition, she'd slip her hand in her pocket and give Doug a squeeze.

Doug served her well, but Cogdell has now proven that she doesn't need his featherless presence.

After a series of podium finishes at high-level trap-shooting competitions in the United States and abroad, Cogdell, 20, is proving that talent is all you really need to make it to the Olympics, her ultimate goal.

Today , she leaves for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to compete in the Pan Am games, pitting her against some of the best competitive sport shooters from the Americas.

'I feel good,' she said from her home at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., where she is a resident in training. 'I've been shooting really consistently. I feel very prepared.

'You do the best you can because the only thing you can control is your own performance.'

Cogdell has had a stellar trap-shooting season. In early spring, she earned a bronze in the women's trap-shooting division at a World Cup event in South Korea.

In mid-May, she won the Spring Selection in Colorado, a prestigious event that determines who will travel to international competitions. In Cogdell's discipline of trap shooting, just one female trap shooter is selected, and the win earned her that spot.

In June came the national championships in Kerrville, Texas, where Cogdell spent time training last year. She finished third, which for her was not good enough.

'Nationals went OK, but not as well as I had hoped,' she said. 'I ended up winning the bronze. My standards are definitely starting to get a little higher, although anything on the medal podium is good.'

Cogdell is pleased with her training this year. She said she is shooting well and taking advantage of the trainers, nutritionists and sports psychologists at the training center, where she spends as much as six hours a day on the range or working out.

At the Pan Am Games, she is hoping for success, although these days she relies on meditation and prayer -- not Doug -- to help her through tense moments. The top three women finishers at the Pan Am Games move on to the World Championships.

Cogdell intends to be one of them.

The layout of the Pan Am competition leaves little room for error, she said. In the national championships, the event was a 300-target match spread over five days. At the Pan Am Games, the women will shoot 75 targets and be done. Only the top six shooters will move into the final round, where they will shoot an additional 25 targets to determine a winner.

'At national championships you can have a bad round and over the days make it up,' she said. 'At Pan Ams, you have to be ready to go from the first shot and shoot three clean rounds. You have to be able to perform from the first shot to the last.'

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Melissa DeVaughn can be found at  mdevaughn@adn.com

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PAN AM GAMES

-- WHEN: July 13-29 in Brazil with about 5,500 athletes from 42 countries competing in 33 sports.

-- WHAT: In skeet, trap and double trap, shooters must fire at the clay targets in such a way that they are visibly broken. A point is scored when they shoot a plate. The winner scores the most points, and in the case of a tie, an extra series of shots take place.

-- OTHER ATHLETES: Former UAF shooters Matt Emmons, an Olympic gold medalist, and Jamie Beyerle will join Cogdell on the shooting team representing the United States at the Pan Am Games.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0009-18063519


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