More than halfway through the Summer Games, Army 2nd Lt. Sam Kendricks was the first among a platoon of military Olympians to claim a spot on the podium with his bronze-medal finish in the men’s pole vault.
Instead, squeezing past Richmond was Kuwaiti army officer Fehaid Al-Deehani, who went on to win the double trap gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his sixth trip to the Summer Games, Al-Deehani almost wasn\u2019t allowed to complete. Kuwait’s Olympic committee is currently suspended, accused of “undue government interference” by the International Olympic Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a last-minute concession just before the Rio Olympics, the IOC allowed Kuwait’s athletes to participate as independents under the IOC flag. Six days before his gold medal win, Al-Deehani turned down a chance to carry that flag during opening ceremonies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I am a military man, and I will only carry the Kuwait flag,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Richmond didn\u2019t begrudge Al-Deehani\u2019s success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“He’s a good friend and very good guy. I knew it was going to take me a while to get through him if I could. I was confident that I could. Maybe I sped up just a little bit.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Richmond, who moved up eight places from his finish in the London Games four years ago, said he\u2019s more committed than ever to keep zeroing in on his own berth atop the Olympic podium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
“Certainly a lot better feeling than London\u2019s performance,” Richmond said. “It\u2019s not what you are after at the end of the day, but anytime you\u2019re progressing in your sport, that\u2019s a good thing. Overall, I couldn\u2019t be happier with the experience I\u2019ve gained here. Getting closer and closer to that medal is creating a bigger fire for me, and I look forward to trying out for another team.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frustrating finishes<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Army veteran and two-time reigning skeet gold medalist Vincent Hancock was eliminated in qualifications, finishing in 15th place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It was frustrating. I didn\u2019t shoot well here or in practice,” Hancock said in a USA Shooting statement. “I felt really well down here, but it was just little things here and there that I can\u2019t really pinpoint what they were. I felt that these were some of the hardest targets we\u2019ve seen in quite some time.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hancock had been determined to win a third gold medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Pretty simple when you look at things.\u00a0You just have to go out there and execute, and I just didn\u2019t do that,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the men\u2019s 50 meter rifle competition, Army shooter Sgt. 1st Class Michael McPhail bested teammate Marine Corps 2nd Lt. David Higgins. McPhail finished 19th,\u00a0trailed by Higgins in 40<\/p>\n\n\n\nth<\/sup>\n\n\n\n place. Higgins graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy a few months ago, but cross-commissioned into the Marine Corps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 25 meter rapid fire pistol competition, Army Sgt. 1st\u00a0Class Keith Sanderson, who is also a Marine Corps veteran, finished in 10th\u00a0place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Sanderson was just three points shy of the 583 points out of 600 he needed to make into the finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not bad, especially considering he\u2019d been dealing with a trigger break after pre-event training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Army Spc. Daniel Lowe finished 28th in the men\u2019s 50 meter, three-position rifle competition and 34th in the 10-meter air rifle event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Track and field fights<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n Two Army runners were up against defending 10,000-meter gold medalist Mo Farah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spc. Leonard Korir and Spc. Shadrack Kipchirchir were hoping to give him a run for his money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Farah, who has won every global title on offer at this distance and is unbeaten over 25 laps of the track since 2011, took a tumble at halfway when an accidental clip from his sometime training partner Galen Rupp saw him sprawled out in Lane 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the tumble, he still crossed the finish line for the win with 27:05.17 on the clock. Korir followed 30 seconds later for 14th\u00a0place, with Kipchirchir taking 19th\u00a0place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the women\u2019s 100-meter sprint, incoming U.S. Naval Academy freshman Regine Tugade finished in the top half of the pack running for Guam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finishing third in her semifinal heat with a time of 12:52, she told reporters, “I didn\u2019t run my personal best, but I honestly felt like I ran my hardest, and I felt like I performed well. It may not show time-wise, but my body and my mentality feels like I pushed it to my limit.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Tugade said she\u2019s looking forward to just getting faster at the Naval Academy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Naval Academy graduate Lt. Edward King made it to the finals in the men\u2019s four-man lightweight rowing event Aug. 11, ending with a sixth-place finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What’s next<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s still action left for the remaining military Olympians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Aug. 19, Army Staff Sgt. John Nunn will compete in the 50K race walk. The next day, Army Sgt. Nathan Schrimsher begins the modern pentathlon, while Spc. Paul Chelimo runs the 5,000-meter race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Capping off the Summer Games for current and former U.S. military Olympians, Navy veteran Peter Lombard is in the mountain bike race competing for Guam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Email Military Times staff writer Jon R. Anderson at jona@militarytimes.com.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rio 2016: Military Olympians struggle in medal battle \u2014 still more to come<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":27496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[92,16],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1053],"class_list":["post-27381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-fitness","category-off-duty"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DUFAPEC7VJEQRE24EEC6YCVFOU","arc_canonical_url":"\/2016\/08\/18\/rio-2016-military-olympians-struggle-in-medal-battle-still-more-to-come\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n