By sports writers Bai Xu and Shen Nan

    BEIJING, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Superman Hancock not only exists in Hollywood movies. The 19-year-old American young man has all the elements to be viewed a superman.

    Full Name: Vincent Hancock.

    Achievements: world record of men's skeet with 150 hits, or full mark of the event; gold medals from 2005 World Championships and four world cups from 2005 to 2008; and a new title -- Olympic champion.

    "I love winning. It is good feeling to me," he beamed after bagging the Olympic champion, showing a pair of lovely canine teeth.

    SHOOTING NOVICE

    Hancock started shooting at the age of eight, when his shooter father Craig asked, "Do you want to try shooting'?

    "Why not?" he said.

    A diligent shooter, every day he shot around four or five 25-shell boxes of ammunition on the skeet field created by his dad. After that he did other routines that helped keep his mind sharp and his body in good form, including push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups and dips, as well as relaxation and visualization exercises on his living room floor.

    Three years later, the boy began appearing in competitions.

    In 2005, he debuted in international arena, grabbing the gold medal in Changwon World Cup with a surprising 149 hits, when everybody was wondering who the kid was.

    However, Hancock considered that competition hardest in his life.

    "I focused on nothing but the targets," he said.

    He started seven times that year in international tournament, taking a medal each time as the first shooter ever to do so, and was hence awarded as shooter of the year.

    IMPORTANT YEAR

    In 2006 the boy did two things.

    One was quitting competitions to join the armed force, where he was supposed to "train soldiers how to shoot".

    Founded in 1956, the shooting squad of the U.S. armed force has produced many ace shooters. To date, its members have achieved 21 Olympic medals.

    The team members trained five days a week and five to six hours a day. Like real soldiers, they received psychological drill as well as physical, while psychology is important in shooting competitions.

    "I learned a lot from the army, like determination, perseverance and discipline," he said, adding that this was helpful in his shooting career.

    As his coach Lloyd Woodhouse saw it, joining the army could put many ace shooters together for them to compare with each other and improve. "When you train alone, you can work really hard, but you don't know where your problems are," he said.

    The other thing Hancock did was meeting Rebekah who was from a nurse school.

    "She is a trap shooter and I saw her competing in the spring of 2006," he recalled.

    Then Hancock said to himself, this is the girl I was looking for.

    They held their wedding ceremony this May in Eatonton, Georgia, this year.

    SHOOTING GENIUS

    Hancock said he liked the flash target used in the Beijing Olympics, because the pink smoke made him excited.

    "When I am shooting skeet, I always want to hit the center of the plate and see how it break," he said.

    The ambitious boy had his goal for this sports gala.

    "I put a lot of pressure on myself, and it helped me get determined to win," he said. "Olympics is not different from other events, just bigger."

    During competitions, he did feel nervous, rubbing his sweating hands against his pants from time to time.

    Fortunately he held his nerves, both in the final round and the shoot-off.

    When he won the medal, his mother sitting behind shedding tears, while his 74-year-old gray-haired coach jumped over to hug him.

    "Hancock is not only talented, he is a genius," said Chinese veteran shooter Zhang Shan, gold medalist in skeet at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

    The big boy well remembered he once pointed at the televised video clip of blockbuster "Hancock" to his wife. "Look, it's me," he said.

    Rebekah smiled and didn't reply.

    In retrospect, no matter she agreed or not at that time, the remarks seemed more than a joke.