A LONGSHOT TAKES AIM

Talk about a shot in the dark.

High school senior Collyn Loper placed fourth in women's trap shooting yesterday, the best U.S. finish in shooting so far in Athens. Her performance was even more remarkable considering she is completely blind in her right eye.

The 17-year-old Alabaman has been unable to see out of that side since birth. In a way, the situation sharpens her focus - many athletes cover one eye to avoid seeing a double target - but if Loper isn't looking intently for a target that comes from the right, she will miss it completely.

She learned to shoot left-handed at 8 or 9 years old, when her father took her to the backyard, put a BB gun in her hand, and had her aim at some Frisbees. By 14, she was a bronze medalist at the junior world championships. She also competed at the 2002 and 2003 World Championships and won a gold medal at the 2003 Pan Am Games. She is the youngest member of the U.S. shooting team in Athens, and hoped to earn a medal to hang in her bedroom next to a poster of Annie Oakley.

Shooting has been on the Olympic program since the first modern Games, in 1896. But it wasn't until 100 years later that women were allowed to compete in the men's trap event; women's trap became a separate Olympic event in 2000.

In trap shooting, competitors use a single-trigger shotgun that weighs about nine pounds. Targets are saucer-like discs, 4 3 /4 inches in diameter. Competitors may shoot twice at each target. Scores from a 75-shot qualifying round are added to a 25-shot final score to determine the winner.

In the six-woman final, Loper hit 20 of the 25 targets for a combined total of 82 out of 100 for the day. Australia's Suzanne Balogh won the gold with a combined score of 88 (22 in the final round), Spain's Maria Quintanal took silver, and South Korea's Lee Bo-Na took the bronze, just one shot better than Loper.

In the final, Loper hit her first 13 targets and was in silver-medal position after 15 shots. After the 22nd shot, she did something out of character, which may have cost her a medal.

"I usually don't look at the score," Loper quoted as saying in a press release issued by USA Shooting. "But today when I snuck a peek and saw Lee tied with me for third, I was really surprised. I missed that next target."

Looper hit the final two, but was out of medal position.