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COLORADO SPRING, Colo. — The tension at the 2012 Warrior Games archery competition could have been split with the knife. Thanks to impressive shooting by Cpl. Justin Jones, the tension wasn’t the only thing split.
In the elimination rounds of the competition, May 2, at the US Air Force Academy, Jones shot a ‘Robin Hood’, meaning that he shot one arrow in the bulls eye and followed it with another directly into the back of the first arrow.
“An arrow through an arrow that’s in the bull’s-eye, that’s perfect! How many times in your life have you done something perfect,” said Col. John Mayer, the commanding officer of the Wounded Warrior Regiment. “Well that man has done it twice in just the past week.”
Jones also competes in the shooting portion of the games. In one of his last training days before the games he shot a perfect 400 out of 400 possible points. In a sport that measures points in tenths of a millimeter, that is no easy task.
“I’m amazed and thrilled,” said Nayelli Jones, Justin’s wife. “I know he’s doing awesome but this was unbelievable. I’m proud of him. Yesterday at practice he was a little stressed out bet now he’s relaxed. He’s not nervous or stressed out. All I can say is just keep it up.”
The spectators and even his competitors regardless of service branch congratulated Jones on the impressive shot. Though impressive, he still only finished the elimination round in 6th place out of 8 places.
From there Jones worked his way, arrow by arrow, to the top of the competition and eventually the podium. Jones won the gold.
“I knew there were some good shooters,” Jones said. “It was going to be a matter of who made mistakes and who didn’t. We were planning on doing a pretty big sweep, but no doubt the Army definitely made it tough on us.”
But he didn’t stop there. Jones and the rest of the Marine archers battled against the Army, Navy, Air Force and Special Operations and won the team gold medals for both the compound bow and reflex bow portions.
At the end of the archery competition Marines walked away, heads held high, with four gold and two bronze medals, giving them a total of 12 medals so far in the games.
The 33 Marines and 17 veteran Marines who make up the All-Marine Warrior Games will continue to face the best their sister services have to offer in sports including shooting, sitting volleyball, swimming, track and field, wheelchair basketball and archery.
“I really wish America knew more about what are wounded warriors have accomplished,” said Leigh Jones, Justin’s mom.
“They sacrifice a lot but they’ve accomplished so much,” his wife added. “They deserve a big hug and thanks for all they do.”
The games are scheduled to continue through the week and if the Marines continue to perform as they have in the first two days, the Chairman’s Cup will be theirs, for the third year in a row.
| Date Taken: | 05.02.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 05.03.2012 12:35 |
| Story ID: | 87804 |
| Location: | COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, US |
| Web Views: | 222 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Marine wins gold, leaves mark at Warrior Games, by Sgt Aaron Hostutler, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
