Archerfish.org

(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 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.