BEIJING, China (August 17, 2008) — The shooting competition at the 2008 Olympic Games concluded Sunday at the Beijing Shooting Range with Matt Emmons (Browns Mills, N.J.) finishing in fourth place in the Men’s 50m 3 Position Rifle event.
Emmons, who won the silver medal in men’s prone this past Friday was competing in his second event at the Beijing Games. In the qualification round, Emmons shot an excellent score of 399 in prone, 389 standing and 387 kneeling, which put him in second place at 1175 going into the final. Emmons was right behind 2000 Olympic gold medalist Rajmond Debeve of Slovenia, who had a qualification score of 1176.
Reminiscent of the final shot in the same event in Athens when Emmons was on his way to a gold medal, then cross-fired finishing in eighth place, he was once again in the same situation. Heading into the final shot standing comfortably in first place by 3.3 points, Emmons accidentally hit the trigger prematurely with his finger and fired a disappointing 4.4 to finish in fourth place.
“I didn’t feel my finger shaking, but I guess it was,” Emmons said after his match. “I realized it went off and I hoped it made it into the black. I call it a freak of nature; I felt normal in this match, maybe just a little bit more nervous. If it had made it to the bullseye, it would have been great.”
Emmons had an excellent final, shooting seven 10s in a row, but the 4.4 on his last shot just wasn’t enough to keep him in medal contention. “In an Olympic final to shoot that many 10s in a row, that’s as good as it gets and I am happy with it. I would love to have a medal around my neck right now, but I had 129 really good shots today and a phenomenal final, so I really can’t complain. I don’t know why I am not supposed to win this event, but everything happens for a reason and it will be good motivation for me for the next four years.”
The gold medal went to Qiu Jian of China who shot a total score of 1272.5. The silver medal was claimed by Jury Sukhorukov of the Ukraine with a 1272.4, while Slovenia’s Rajmond Debevec won the bronze medal with a score of 1271.7.
U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) member and two-time Olympian Jason Parker (Omaha, Neb.), who was competing in his second event of the Beijing Games finished in 22nd place with a prone score of 393, a standing score of 384 and a kneeling of 387 for a total of 1164 points.
For complete results from the shooting competition at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, please visit the following link on the official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games: results.beijing2008.cn.
