



BURLINGTON -- If you are looking for a trainer to help you with your favorite sport, who better to ask for advice than the world's best! Four members of the U.S. national target shooting team, and Olympic hopefuls, made a stop in Burlington this weekend to give lessons and hopefully grow a future Olympic athlete.



2008 gold medalist Vincent Hancock, 2008 bronze medalist Corey Cogdell, and Olympic hopefuls Collin Wietfeldt and Billy Crawford met kids as young as 11 years old, to adult shooters at the Conservation Club in Burlington Saturday, April 7th.



"It is kind of a little bit intimidating, because you don't want to mess up. You don't want them to think you're bad," Cassandra Epping of Wilmot, who hopes to shoot competitively in college next year said. Epping is hoping for a spot on a college trap shooting team, holding tryouts Monday.



"It's really not what I thought it would be, because they seemed more down to earth than I thought they would be, " Burlington High School junior Jordan Hintz said.



The athletes gave advice to the shooters in a variety of events. "I've studied the game. My passion is coming out here and shooting, and now its transferring my passion over to these kids to teach them how to shoot," gold medalist Vincent Hancock said.



"I think we've had probably close to 50 to 100 kids this weekend. We've had some kids break their first targets. We've had some experienced shooters really learn a lot, and it's been wonderful to see all these kids breaking clays," bronze medalist Corey Cogdell said.



Following this weekend, it is back to training for the London Olympic hopefuls. U.S. national competitions resume next month with the Olympics to follow this summer.



CLICK HERE for more information via the Burlington Conservation Club website.