Shooting Day 1 Review: Emmons and Pang join the gold medal club
(BEIJING, August 9) — The outstanding performances of the Czech Republic’s Katerina Emmons and China’s Pang Wei were the highlights of the first day of the Olympic Shooting competition.
Emmons and Pang won gold medals in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle and Men’s 10m Air Pistol respectively.
Emmons coolly broke the Olympic Record for the Qualification Round of the Women’s 10m Air Rifle by shooting a perfect 400. The previous record was 399, achieved by Russian Lioubov Galkina at Athens 2004.
Emmons continued on her merry way by breaking the Olympic Record for the Final Round of the Women’s 10m Air Rifle. Her final round score was 103.5, two-fifths of a point higher than the next best score by silver medalist Galkina. The bronze medal was won by Croatia’s Snjezana Pejcic who shot a final score of 500.9.
Emmons’ final score of 503.5 eclipsed the previous record of 502.0 set by China’s Du Li at Athens 2004.
Pang’s gold medal somewhat erased China’s disappointment at the performance of Du in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle. The Athens gold medalist seemingly collapsed under pressure in the final round and could only manage a final round score of 100.6, which was the second worst score out of the eight shooters who participated in the final round.
Pang’s performance was the complete opposite of Du’s. Despite being only 22 years old, Pang reveled in a field bereft of the world’s top-ranking shooters and skipped to an easy victory with a final score of 688.2.
The Republic of Korea’s Jin Jong-oh won the silver medal with a final score of 684.5 and Kim Jong-su of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea won the bronze medal with a final score of 683.0
Pang must have greatly benefited from Wang Yifu being the coach of the Chinese shooting team because Wang won the gold medal in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol at Athens 2004.
Wang was not exactly glowing in praise when describing Pang’s gold-medal-winning performance. “Pretty good. The first shot in the final was not very satisfying, but he caught up quickly and performed very well,” Wang said.
When asked whether Du’s perceived failure influenced him, Pang said: “I didn’t know the result of the Women’s 10m Air Rifle. I’m deliberately not informed to protect me from extra pressure.”
The only other event today was the first three qualification rounds of the Men’s Trap. David Kostelecky of the Czech Republic is leading after hitting 73 targets. Previous Olympic gold medalists, Australia’s Michael Diamond and Russia’s Alexey Alipov, are well-positioned after hitting 72 targets.
