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Sunday, August 17, 2008

Emmons repeats Athens tragedy


Emmons repeats Athens tragedy



Despite not shooting the wrong target this time, the 4.4 that the United States' Matthew Emmons scored on his last shot was no better than the zero from his last shot in the same event final four years ago.

After nine shots in the final of the Men's 50m Rifle Three Positions, Emmons was leading by 3.3 points over Ukraine's Jury Sukhorukov. Qiu Jian of China was in third place with one tenth of a point less.

After that, history repeated itself. Emmons shot an amateurish 4.4 points on his last shot. Qiu Jian shot 10.0 to win the gold medal with a tenth of a point more than Sukhorukov, who scored 9.8 on his last shot. Four years ago in Athens, China's Jia Zhanbo was lifted from second to win gold when Emmons hit his neighboring target and earned zero on his last shot.

Rajmond Debevec of Slovenia, the current world and Olympic record holder was the highest-ranked shooter after qualification with a score of 1176, which was one point short of the Olympic record that he set at Sydney 2000. Due to Emmons' mistake, Debevec was lifted into third position and won the bronze medal.

Reigning champion Jia Zhanbo failed to make it to the final, finishing a disappointing 24th after qualification.

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