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The American shooter started the news season in the best possible way, coming back to victory just a few months after securing a Gold medal at the 2009 ISSF World Cup Final in Wuxi.

The Olympic medallist of Athens and Beijing Matthew Emmons of the USA won today’s 50m Rifle Three Positions Men event at the ISSF World Cup in Sydney, Australia, the first stage of this year’s ISSF World Cup Series in Rifle and Pistol events.

The winter break did not affect the scores of Emmons: he had concluded the 2009 season in first, by winning the ISSF World Cup Final in Wuxi, and after a the winter break he came back to ISSF competitions as strong as ever. The 28-year old American sharpshooter, currently leading the world rank in this event, kept up with his fans’ expectations claiming the first Gold medal of the season with a total score of 1272.6 points, and leaving his opponents far behind him.

Making it into the final in second place with 1170 points, Emmons climbed in the lead with an excellent final of 102.6 points, the highest score of the round, overtaking Austria’s Mario Knoegler to finish on the highest step of the podium.

“It was challenging. Standing hasn’t been easy, today. I was not as confident as I would like to be.  I did a lot of work to calm myself down, to shoot the best shots that I could, and fortunately that turned out to be ok!” Emmons said after the match.

Austria’s Mario Knoegler, 30, secured Silver with a total score of 1270.0 points, his second medal in this World Cup stage, following the Bronze he had won at the Air Rile match five days ago. Qualified with 1170 points, Knoegler lost two precious points on his fifth competition shot, when he fired a disappointing 8.1 that landed him in second place.

Bronze went to the “2009 Shooter of the Year” Peter Sidi of Hungary, who climbed all the way up from the fourth place by shooting 102.4 points during the final round. The 31-year old Hungarian shooter climbed upon the podium with a total score of 1268.4 points, grabbing his second World Cup Bronze in this event seven year after the 2003 World Cup Stage in Fort Benning.

The Olympic Silver medallist of Beijing climbed on the second podium of the week, winning Gold at the 10m Air Pistol Men event. India’s first time medallist Omkar Singh followed him in second place. Bronze to Russia’s Chervyakovskiy.

The 2010 ISSF World Cup Series started in the best way for Korea’s top-ranked pistol shooters Jin Jong Oh, who had closed the past season in the lead, by winning the 2009 World Cup Final in Beijing.

The 2008 Olympic multi-medallist walked into today’s final in second place with a qualification score of 583 points, and then climbed up in the lead by shooting 99.4 points in the final, winning his first Gold of the year with a total of 682.4 points. The 30-year old Korean athlete had finished on the podium also yesterday, when he won a Silver medal at the 50m Pistol Men final.

On his way to the podium, Jin duelled against the Indian first time finalist Omkar Singh. The Indian shooter had qualified in the lead with a score of 584 points, but

As Singh fired a frustrating 6.7 on his sixth final shot wasting his head start, Jin did not hesitate and moved in first place by shooting a consistent average.

Omkar Singh landed in second place winning Silver with a total score of 681.2 (584+97.2) points, grabbing the first ISSF medal of his sport career. “This is my first time on a podium of an ISSF World Cup stage. – Said Singh after the round – I have been training a lot for this match. I took part in the Commonwealth Championship, but unluckily I did not make it to the podium there. I was looking for a medal, and I found it here!”

“ This World Cup has been fantastic – continued Singh – not only for me: the whole Indian team succeeded in Sydney! I will try to make it into the team for the Commonwealth Games, now. I am really motivated! “

Today’s Bronze went to the 24-year old Russian shooter Sergey Chervyakovskiy, third with 679.5 (581+98.5) points, who finished on the podium with a two tenths advantage on the following Chinese shooter Pu Qifeng, fourth with 679.3 points.

USA’s Daryl Szarenski, a finalist of yesterday’s 50m Pistol Men event, closed the round in fifth place with 678.2 points, followed by India’s Samresh Jung in sixth, by Serbia Damir Mikec in seventh and by China’s Bin Zhang in eighth place.

Competing in the 50m Rifle Prone Men event at the ISSF World Cup in Sydney, Australia’s Potent equalled the 600-point world record, winning Gold on the lined of his home range.

Australia’s Warren Potent won the applauses of the final hall of the Olympic Shooting Range of Sydney, today, by winning Gold at the 50m Rifle Prone Men final.

Spotlights were on the home shooter since the qualification rounds, as the Olympic Bronze medallist of Beijing had equalled the World Record to walk into the final in first with 600 points.

Nobody could then stop him during the medal match. In spite of being close-followed by India’s Joydeep Karmakar, Potent shot in the lead from the first right to the last shot, ending up on the highest step of the podium with an unreachable final score of 703.7 (600+103.7) points.

“It’s great to win a Gold medal here, on the lines of my home range. – Exclaimed Potent after the award ceremony, celebrated by a number of Australian fans - This is my second time on the highest step of this podium. I had won my first ISSF World Cup Gold medal here in Sydney, in 2007!”

“I was really nervous this morning, before shooting the record. – Kept on explaining Potent – This is my home range, but it’s never easy… I had been closed to it several time, but I had never scored 600 points in an international match before, for some reasons.”

“The final itself hasn’t been that easy too: the way in which the wind affects the shots here in the final hall is quite different than in the qualification building.” Concluded Potent, smiling as somebody reminded him that the 2007 World Cup Gold medal had been his first step on the road leading to the Olympic Podium of Beijing.

“I am now looking forward to the ISSF World Championship in Munich, – He said  - I heard that more than 2500 shooters are going to be there, because of the Olympic Quotas… That’s the first Qualification for the 2012 Games in London, it’s going to be challenging!”

The Silver medal went to India’s Joydeep Karmakar, 30-year old, a first time finalist. The Shooter from Calcutta had indeed participated in a single ISSF World Cup Stage, in Resende (BRA), four years ago, placing far behind the medal placements.

Karmakar made it to the final round with an excellent qualification score of 599 points, just one point lower than the world record equalled by Potent. By shooting 103.4 points during the final, he could not make up the disadvantage he had from the leader. His total score of 702.4 points landed him in second place, winning his first international medal ever.

“This was my first time in an ISSF World Cup final round… I have been shooting for fifteen years, but I could not reach these results, something was missing on the psychological side, which is really important in shooting. “ Said the Indian athlete right before the award ceremony.

“I started to dedicate more and more time to shooting in 2007, and these are the results. – continued Karmakar – My next goals? The Olympic Games, of course! Since Bindra’s victory at the 2008 Games, shooting has become more and more popular in India. He showed us that it is possible to get there. And I will try to get there!”

It was the expert Belarusian shooter Sergey Martynov who took today’s Bronze medal, ending up in third place with 700.7 points. The three-time Olympic Bronze medallist, and ten-time World Cup Gold medallist, shot 103.7 points in the final match, overtaking the American shooter Michael McPhail to finish on the podium with a total score of 700.7 points.

USA’s McPhail, 28-year old, missed the podium by a few tenths. The American athlete, who had claimed two World Cup Bronzes last year, could not recover from a 9.0 he fired on his sixth final shot, and ended up in fourth place with 700.5 points. Following him, Switzerland’s Marcel Buerge took the fifth spot with 699.2 points, while the second American finalist Eric Uptagrafft landed in sixth place with 697.1 points.

Gold to the 21-year old Chinese ace, Silver to India’s Sanjeev Rajput, followed in fourth and seventh place by his teammates Narang and Padinchare Thermadathil. Bronze to Austria’s Knoegler.

The 21-year old Chinese shooter Cao Yifei won the first final of the 2010 ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Sydney. The young athlete led the match starting from the qualifications, and never jeopardized his chances of victory. Walking into the final match with the highest qualification score of 596 points, Cao scored a total of 102.8 points during the final, securing the first Gold medal of his international career with a total score of 698.8 points.

In spite of his young age, the Chinese shooter had already climbed ISSF podiums in 2008 and 2009, when he had won two Silver medals in Milan and Changwon, climbing the world ranking up to the fifth place. In the next months he will probably have to face his teammate Zhu Qinan, one of the best Air Rifle shooter of the World. The two will have to duel on the way to the 50th ISSF World Championship, where the first Olympic Quotas for London will be awarded to the best performers, next August.

The Silver medal went to India’s Sanjeev Rajput, a 29-year old shooter who had never finished on an ISSF podium before.  “I felt like I was competing in India, having two teammates next to me!” exclaimed the Silver medallist. He had in fact made it into the final together with his teammates Gagan Narang and Raghunath Padinchare Thermadathil in fifth place. Qualified with 594 points, he climbed up the scoreboard to the second place by shooting today’s highest final score, 103.9 points.

The World Record holder Gagan Narang, also from India, was left in fourth with a total score of 696.8 points. After starting in eighth place, with the lower qualification score, the Indian ace climbed up the scoreboard by firing 102.8 points, finishing just one tenth of a point far from the podium “I am working on my equipment, there is still a 15% to be tuned up to reach the best conditions” Said Narang after the match “This World Cup came early in the season. We closed the 2009 in December, with the Asian Championship in Doha, and we started preparing the Commonwealth Championship quite early, this year. There has not bee that much time to rest in between.”

“The most important competition of the year is the ISSF World Championship in Munich – Continued Narang – The first Olympic Quota Places fro London are going to be awarded there. I am going to try to peak for that match.”

Bronze went to the 30-year old Austrian finalist Mario Knoegler, 30, who placed in third with a total score of 696.9 points, while the 2009 Shooter of the Year Peter Sidi of Hungary landed in fifth place with 696.7 points.