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(BEIJING, August 15) — The Emmons family won its third medal of Beijing 2008 when Matthew Emmons won a silver medal in the Men’s 50m Rifle Prone today.

Emmons’ silver medal joins the gold and silver medals that his wife Katerina won in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle and the Women’s 50m Rifle Three Positions.

Emmons will be disappointed that he could not reproduce the gold medal he won in the event at Athens 2004, but he was satisfied with his performance today.

“It’s the best match of my life. It is the best I can shoot. It’s very hard to walk into a final two points behind. It’s not impossible to come back from that, but it’s very difficult,” said Emmons.

Emmons finished the qualification round in second place with a total of 597, two points behind eventual gold medalist Artur Ayvazian of Ukraine.

Ayvazian shot consistently in the final and was able to defend his lead, winning the gold medal with a final score of 702.7 points. Emmons finished with a total score of 701.7.

Ayvazian, 35, finished ninth in the event at Athens 2004 and believes his previous Olympic experience helped him win the gold medal.

“I am not surprised because I have participated in the Olympics three times and I have done a lot of preparation work,” said Ayvazian.

Ayvazian is the first Ukrainian to win a gold medal in the Men’s 50m Rifle Prone.

(BEIJING, August 15) — The Olympic Shooting competition continues tomorrow, with gold medals to be decided in the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol and the Men’s Skeet.

The final of the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol promises to be a battle between the master and the apprentice. The master is German shooter, Ralf Schumann, who has won three Olympic gold medals and one silver medal in the event. The apprentice is Schumann’s compatriot, 21-year-old Christian Reitz, who is the event’s World No. 1.

In the first stage of qualification today, Reitz scored a total of 289, two points off the leader, Leonid Ekimov of Russia. Ekimov is another young star of the sport – the 20-year-old Russian is even younger than Reitz.

One point behind Reitz is the old master, 46-year-old Schumann. The top six shooters from the two qualification stages will advance to the final, which will be held tomorrow at noon local time (UTC/GMT +8).

Both Reitz and Schumann are not certain to qualify for the final. With Reitz on 289 points are Ukrainian Oleksandr Petriv and the United States’ Keith Sanderson.

Three shooters are tied with Schumann on 288 points: Cuban Leuris Pupo, China’s Zhang Penghui and Russian Alexei Klimov. Iulian Raicea of Romania is one point behind them on 287.

The second stage of qualification, which will be held tomorrow at 9 a.m., promises to be a very tight and competitive battle.

The first three rounds of qualification for Men’s Skeet were held today and 18 shooters hit 70 or more targets (the highest possible score was 75).

The United States’ Vincent Hancock leads the field after hitting a total of 73 targets. Hancock is only 19 years old.

The final of the Men’s Skeet will be held tomorrow at 3 p.m.

(BEIJING, August 15) — Ukraine’s Artur Ayvazian won the gold medal in the Men’s 50m Rifle Prone in Beijing on August 15, scoring a total of 702.7 points.

The United States’ Matthew Emmons won the silver medal with a total of 701.7 and Australia’s Warren Potent won the bronze medal with a total of 700.5.

Ayvazian was the highest-scoring shooter in the qualification round with a total of 599, one point shy of a perfect score. Emmons finished the qualification round in second place with a total of 597.

Norway’s Vebjoern Berg finished the qualification round in third place with a total of 596. Four shooters were tied on 595, including Potent.

Ayvazian’s performance in the final was solid, which was enough for him to hold onto the lead and win the gold medal. Emmons scored only 9.8 on his fourth shot, but he scored 10.8 on both his fifth and sixth shots, which helped him gain a lead over the rest of the field.

Potent was the best-performed shooter in the final, shooting a total of 105.5. His strong performance helped him overtake Russia’s Konstantin Prikhodtchenko in third place.

After a perfect 10.9 on his third shot, Prikhodtchenko appeared capable of threatening Emmons for the silver medal. However, his game fell away after hitting 10.9 and he finished fifth, a tenth of a point behind Berg in fourth place.

Ayvazian, 35, finished ninth in the event at Athens 2004. By winning the gold medal today, he defeated the Athens 2004 gold medalist in the event, the 27-year-old Emmons.

(BEIJING, August 14) — The highlight of tomorrow’s Shooting action will be the final of the Men’s 50m Rifle Prone.

Matthew Emmons of the United States is a strong chance to win his second gold medal in the event, following on from his success at Athens 2004.

For inspiration, Emmons does not need to look any further than his wife Katerina, who has already won two medals at Beijing 2008 — a gold medal in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle and a silver medal in the Women’s 50m Rifle Three Positions.

Emmons will be challenged by Australian Warren Potent, who equaled the World record for a final score at the Beijing World Cup in April 2008.

After winning bronze medals at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, Belarusian Sergei Martynov will be looking to up the ante and win gold.

The qualification round of the Men’s 50m Rifle Prone will begin tomorrow at 9 a.m. local time (UTC/GMT +8), while the final will begin at 11:30 a.m. The top eight shooters from the qualification round advance to the final.

In addition to the Men’s 50m Rifle Prone, the first qualification stages of both the Men’s Skeet and the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol will be held tomorrow.

There will be a total of four past gold medalists in the Men’s Skeet: Italian Andrea Benelli (Athens 2004), Ukrainian Mykola Milchev (Sydney 2000), Italian Ennio Falco (Atlanta 1996) and German Axel Wegner (1988).

The only gold medalist from the previous five Games that will not be present will be China’s Zhong Shan, the only woman to a win a shooting event that was open to both women and men. Women now have their own Skeet event, which was won by Italy’s Chiara Cainero today.

The Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol promises to be a battle between two German shooters. Germany’s Ralf Schumann will embark on his campaign to win a fourth Olympic gold medal in the event.

However, his compatriot Christian Reitz broke the world records for both the qualification and final scores at the Milan World Cup in May 2008. The 21-year-old Reitz will need to handle the pressure of shooting at the Olympics and not be outwitted by his experienced opponent, the 46-year-old Schumann.

(BEIJING, August 14) — The first gold of the Beijing Games was put under Chinese shooter Du Li’s name even before the Games started. However, Du finished fifth in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle last Saturday, August 9. The honor of winning the Games’ first gold medal eventually went to Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic.

Chastened by her performance in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle, Du did not pass up her second chance of a winning a gold medal. Du won the gold medal with a new Olympic record for the final score of 690.3, while her qualification score of 589 equaled the Olympic record. Du broke both the Olympic qualification record set by Renata Mauer of Poland at Atlanta 1996 and the Olympic record for a final score set by Russian Lioubov Galkina at Athens 2004.

Following Du in second and third place were Emmons with a final score of 687.7 and Cuba’s Eglis Yaima Cruz with 687.6.

The final started badly for Du when she shot 8.7, the worst single shot of any shooter in the final. Cuba’s Cruz caught up and took the lead with her first shot scoring 10.3. Du soon regained first place when she scored 10.4 on her third shot, while Cruz could only manage 9.3. Cruz’s last taste of the lead was on her fifth shot when Du scored 9.9 and Cruz made 10.5.

Du’s timely 10.8 on her sixth shot set up her victory and 10.8 on her ninth shot secured the gold medal. Emmons fought back to beat Cruz for the silver medal.