from ISSF
29-year old Matthew Emmons, from Grand Rapids, Minnesota, finished on the podium of the 50m Rifle Prone Men event at the ISSF World Championship in all shooting events held in Munich (GER), the first Olympic qualifier sport event, becoming the first American athlete to gain a qualification spot for the 2012 London Games.
Emmons, a 2004 Olympic Champion of Athens and 2008 Olympic Silver medallist of Beijing, won today’s Bronze with a total score of 702.2 (598+104.2) points. He had already won an ISSF World Championship medal in 2002, in Lahti, Finland, right before his success at the 2004 Games.
“It’s great to be the one who grabbed the first Olympic Quota for America.” Said Matthew after the match “Of course, I am not automatically qualified. The Quota goes to the US Shooting team, and all the American shooters are passing through a qualification system in order to decide who will go to the next Games.”
The Gold medal of the 50m Rifle Prone Event went to the 42-year old Belarusian shooter Sergei Martynov, who won his second consecutive World Championship title in the 50m Rifle Prone men event, securing an Olympic Quota Place, and becoming the first men to win two world championship medals in this event in the centenary history of the international shooting sport federation. “I am used to win, and I am not too old to.” Read More about the 50m Rifle Prone Men final
Air Rifle – Yi’s poker shuttered home-hero Pfeilschifter’s dreams and record
China’s Yi Siling, 21, scored a poker in Munich, as she claimed the 10m Air Rifle Women Gold medal (becoming the new World Champion), she secured an Olympic Quota place (a pass for the next Games), she set a new final world record (505.6 points), and she finally beat her teammate Wu Liuxi, who had outscored her several times in the last two seasons.
Yi’s victory also turned into a bittersweet entertainment for hundreds of paying spectators. If they were delighted by Yi’s great performance (she shot an exceptional average of more then 10.5 points per shot), on the other side they were disappointed as her new world record beat the previous record of 505.0 points set by the local hero, Munich’s Sonja Pfeilschifter, two years ago at the Milan’s World Cup. Pfeilschifter, who everybody here expected to stand upon the podium to win Germany’s first Quota Place, did not make it, ending up in 16th place with a frustrating score of 396 points, remaining just one point out of the final match. Read More about the 10m Air Rifle Women final
