New Jersey Man Wins Olympic Rifle Competition

[WT]

THE NEW YORK TIMES

August 20, 2004


Filed at 9:58 a.m. ET

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- American Matt Emmons won the gold medal Friday in the 50-meter prone rifle competition with a score of 703.3. Emmons led all shooters after the qualifying round with a score of 599, which meant that only one of his 60 shots failed to hit the bull's-eye that is 10.4 millimeters in diameter -- smaller than a dime.

In the final, where shots are measured in fractions of a point, Emmons shot a 104.3.

Christian Lusch of Germany won the silver medal with 702.2, and Sergei Martynov of Belarus took the bronze.

Martynov had the highest score in the final, shooting 105.6 to move into medal position after finishing fifth in qualifying.

Emmons, of Browns Mills, N.J., won four NCAA rifle team titles at Alaska-Fairbanks. He was a three-time NCAA champion (2001-03) in small-bore rifle and the 2001 champion in air rifle.

He qualified for three events at the Athens Olympics, becoming the first U.S. shooter to do so. He failed to reach the final in 10-meter air rifle on Monday and will compete in three-position rifle on Sunday.

 

[Wildalaska]

It should read University of Alaska Fairbanks Shooter wins medal

WildoneofusnotofthemAlaska

 

[Chipperman]

Surprising that the Times put in a positive article about GUNS.

 

[Cosmoline]

Well he may technically be from New Jersey.

BUT HE LEARNED TO SHOOT IN ALASKA! So we're gonna claim him. New Jersey can take it up with us outside.

 

[nico]

with that kind of shooting, he was probably much more than proficient long before he'd ever heard of Alaska.

 

[Atlas Shrug]

Matt (or any shooter at that level in college) was a well known Master level shooter prior to going to UAF. He was RECRUITED to go there. I dabble in coaching a collegiate rifle team myself, so I know of what I speak.

That said, you can't blame him for being born in New Jersey. That would be his parents' fault.

As they say:

"American by birth, Southern by the Grace of God!"

I guess that you can change "Southern" to "Alaskan" if you want, it is a free county (for now).

 

[HarryB]

Even odder...


It was televised on MSNBC this morning!

 

[JohnKSa]

He's the only American shooter to medal so far...

Am I the only one that finds that both surprising and sad?

 

[Atlas Shrug]

He's the only American shooter to medal so far...

Not true!! Kim Rhode got (another) gold in Women's double trap.

See this:

http://www.athens2004.com/en/resultsShooting/results?rsc=SH0000000

That said, not enough medals. We have a good team, but still the competition is very tough.

 

[JohnKSa]

Weird--Yahoo Sports doesn't show her medal...

Two is better, but that still only puts us 4th or 5th (depending on whether you rank by # of golds or # of medals).

For comparison:

Russia--10 medals--3 gold
China--8 medals--3 gold
Germany--3 medals--2 gold
Korea--3 medals--0 gold
USA--2 medals--2 gold

 

[Atlas Shrug]

Was on track for second gold, but....

A VERY bizarre thing happened. Read the following. Sorry English, but it's straight from:

http://www.athens2004.com/en/result...VCM4000002b130c0a____&dcpnews=1&rsc=SH0000000

At least it helped Anti go from Bronze to Silver - he's paid his dues. Emmons was on top of his game though. The future will be interesting.

Still Shrugging this one off....

Atlas Shrug



ATHENS, 22 August - In a thrilling final everything changed controrversially in the final shot. Matthew EMMONS (USA) who was in the first place until the ninth shot, shot his last in the target of Christian PLANER (AUT) and ended up scoring zero. This dropped him into last place with 1257.4 points.

This mistake of EMMONS gave to Zhanbo JIA (CHN) the Olympic gold medal, which is his first medal in any International competition. The final score of JIA was 1264.5 points.

On the other hand EMMONS copatriot, Michael ANTI scored 10.4 in his tenth shot and took the Silver medal with final score 1263.1.
Austrian Christian PLANER with a 10.6 in his final shot, climb from the fifth to the third place and grapped the Bronze medal from the Sydneys Olympic Champion Rajmond DEBEVEC (SLO) with a diference of 0.2 points. DEBEVEC (SLO) last shot was 8.4.

In the fifth place ended, the number two in the world ranking list Artem KHADJIBEKOV (RUS) with 1261.6 points. Thomas FARNIK (AUT), keep the sixth place which he had from the qualification round and Artur AIVAZIAN (UKR) dropped from the fourth to the seventh place with 1261.0.

ONS oe

 

[JohnKSa]

The shot scored high enough to give Emmons gold but was on the wrong target. He neglected to check the target number on his last shot and cross-fired on an adjacent target.

Anti's silver lets the U.S. finish 3rd in the shooting medal count.

I hope Emmons is still in the sport in 2008...

 

[roscoe]

Yeah, but what's with this?

"After discovering earlier this year that someone had sabotaged his rifle, Emmons used a gun he borrowed from a training partner to win the gold medal Friday in the 50-meter prone rifle competition."

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/9468418.htm?1c

 

[atek3]

an american won an international shooting competition? Wow, thats pretty interesting.

atek3

 

[Cosmoline]

The title of this thread needs to be changed! Emmons is now an Alaska resident. He's living here now full time and isn't going back to that place in the east which shall not be named. He takes the PFD, hunts Caribou and partakes in the sort of wild-eyed freedom that would break the minds of the drones on the eastern shore.

 

[JohnKSa]

atek3,

In the last Olympics, IIRC, the very first Gold medal won by any competitor, any country, was by an American in air rifle. I can't remember her name. I think it was Nancy Johnson but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

[Atlas Shrug]

JohnKSa - it would have been a safe bet. Nancy Johnson did win the women's air rifle Gold at the 2000 Olympics.

Traditionally, that event is the first medal event of the games. The competitors usually skip the opening ceremonies because the match starts early in the morning.

Had both US men not had administrative errors, we would have been Gold - Silver USA, with China Bronze. Nonetheless, we're doing well in shooting overall.