Tanoue on target at world event
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
Look at the period at the end of this line.
Scott Engen of USA Shooting says that's about how big the 10-ring (or bull's-eye) on the target looks when you are shooting at it with a rifle from 33 yards away.
It doesn't help that hundreds of spectators at Lathi, Finland, and thousands of television viewers all over Europe are watching you.
If all the pressure bothered Ryan Tanoue of Kaimuki at the World Shooting Championships on Saturday, he overcame it quickly. Tanoue got better as the match progressed and finished with the score of his life — 52 bull's-eyes in 60 shots and 592 points of a possible 600.
It earned Tanoue, 19, the bronze medal in the junior men's 10-meter air rifle event of the International Shooting Sport Federation world championships. The event, held every four years, is second only to the Olympic Games in prestige among shooters.
"I only dropped three points in my last 40 shots," Tanoue said. "I dropped five points on the first 20."
By comparison, he lost eight points out of 400 in winning the NCAA championship this year. His previous best was 591 in the 2000 Junior Olympics, when he was second. He won the Junior Olympics last year with a lower score.
"I shot a lot better than ever before," Tanoue said after arriving home yesterday. "This was by far my best match."
Tanoue, a 2001 St. Louis School graduate, will return to the University of Nevada for the start of the intercollegiate season in early September. He says he is looking forward to the Fall Selection Match for USA Shooting at Fort Benning, Ga., in October. It is part of the selection process for next year's Pan American Games.
Olympic Games? "2004 probably isn't realistic," Tanoue said, "but 2008 might be."
BASEBALL
• Beloit (Wisconsin)
Infielder/co-captain Avery Walker (Pearl City '98) graduated in May from Beloit, but he left an imprint.
Walker started at shortstop and third base for four years and, despite knee surgery this year, set career records for games played (123) and assists (215).
He is No. 2 on Beloit's career list in at-bats (343), fourth in singles (76)– and — ouch — tied for fourth in times hit by pitches (16).
Walker's best batting average was .330 (32-for-86) in 2000.
He now resides in San Diego.
• Washington State
The only player from Hawai'i on a Pac-10 roster this season was Lanakila Niles (Kamehameha '98), a right-handed pitcher from Pearl City.
Niles had a tough senior year: 16 relief appearances, 9.96 earned run average in 34¡ innings; opponents batted .361 against him.
"But he hung in there for four years and got his degree," Washington State coach Tim Mooney said. "A lot of kids don't do that."
