The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic GamesAugust 8-24 2008
(BEIJING, August 17) -- US shooter Matthew Emmons missed the last gold medal on offer in the Shooting tournament on Sunday when he missed the target in the final shot of the 50m Rifle Three Positions. He had left Athens four years ago with a gold medal in the 50m Rifle Prone but came away empty-handed from the 50m Rifle Three Positions, after he hit the wrong target in the final shot.
Having delivered nine shots so well that he was leading by a mile at the tenth bullet, all he needed to grab gold in the event here was 6.3 points, compared with the 8.0 points needed in Athens, but he flubbed.
His final shot earned him a low 4.4 -- 1.7 points less than what he needed.
Emmons had, however, already won silver in the 50m Rifle Prone, and his wife, Czech shooter Katerina Emmons, won the first Shooting gold of Beijing 2008 in the 10m Air Rifle, so he still has something to rest on.
Chinese shooter Qiu Jian was as lucky as Jia Zhanbo was four years ago, taking first place with a 1272.5 total. Jury Sukhorukov of Ukraine took silver with a final tally of 1272.4. Slovenia's Rajmond Debevec, the gold medalist at Sydney 2000 and the current world and Olympic record-holder, got bronze with 1271.7 after starting the final one point ahead of Emmons.
