Olympic Shooting Sports

[JohnKSa]

Walton Eller of the USAMU won Gold in Men's Double trap setting both a qualification olympic record and another olympic record with his total score. That's the first Gold for the U.S. in the shooting sports and only the second medal for the U.S. in the shooting sports.

Jeff Holguin, also of the USAMU finished fourth. Italy took silver (the shooter was extremely emotional) and China finished with a bronze.

Neither of the U.S. entrants in Women's 25m pistol qualified, so we'll have to wait until Day 6 for another chance at the medals.

 

[JohnKSa]

Jamie Beyerle is qualified 5th (or in a 3 way tie for third depending on how you look at it) for Women's 50M 3 position rifle. She earlier finished 4th in Womens 10M air rifle. Li Du of China qualified first.

Kimberly Rhode is working on qualifiying for Women's Skeet. Currently in 2nd place. Ning Wei of China is leading at this point.

At this point, Chinese shooters have won 3 gold medals. In contrast, the U.S. has won only a single gold in the shooting sports. China has won 6 medals overall in the shooting sports, the U.S. has won 2.

 

[JohnKSa]

Beyerle was in 2nd with one shot to go.

She needed a 9.6 for silver, a 9.5 for bronze. Her first 9 shots of the final averaged over 10.2 per shot, her worst shot so far in the final had been a 9.5.

She shot an 8.7 and finished 5th...

On a brighter note, Rhode qualified third for Women's Skeet!

 

[JohnKSa]

Rhode finished in a 3 way tie for first and ended up coming in last in the resulting shootout. Another bronze shooting medal for the U.S.!

Italy took gold, Germany silver.

 

[LanceOregon]

Did you note that Katerina Emmons ( who won the first Gold Medal of the Olympics Saturday in Women's Air Rifle ), took her SECOND Olympic medal by getting the Silver in the Women's 50 m 3 position rifle??

Does everyone know who Katerina, who is from the Czech Republic and represents that country, is married to????

If not, checkout this amazing story of love at the Olympics:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26124639/


That is really too bad about Jamie Beyerle choking on her last shot. She won the World Championships in Women's 50 m 3 Position Rifle just a few months ago in Milan, Italy. Many had felt she would get the Gold in Beijing too, or at least the Silver.

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[mvpel]

If I was a nearby bird, I don't know if I would be very relaxed with her being around!

Heck, I don't expect that a nearby male would be very relaxed with her being around.

 

[SiNNiK]

I'd like to download some of the shooting video and upload to my daughter's ipod, is there a way to legally do this?

I have firefox and the VideoDownloader plug-in, but it lies to me.

 

[ChicagoTex]

I have firefox and the VideoDownloader plug-in, but it lies to me.

VideoDownloader was designed for flash/shockwave, this is presented in Microsoft's new Silverlight streaming media format, which I don't believe VideoDownloader supports - though a later version may.

 

[JohnKSa]

Somehow I goofed on Rhode's medal. She took silver, not bronze.

I watched the final, but something must have happened after the final was over to change the rankings, I'm pretty certain that the results showed Rhode in third after the shootout.

At any rate, that's the first Silver in shooting sports for the U.S. We now have one of each.

 

[JohnKSa]

Matt Emmons takes home the Silver in Men's 50m Prone Rifle! He's also expected to do very well in Three Position Rifle on Day 9.

Vincent Hancock of the USAMU is currently first in Men's Skeet after Day 1 of qualification.

Keith Sanderson is third after the first day of qualification in Men's 25m Rapid Pistol so that leaves three more chances for the U.S. to medal in the shooting sports.

 

[LanceOregon]

Here are some cool photos of Matt winning his Silver Medal:

Note the monitor that each shooter has, showing him exactly where his shots land. This is done instead of using a spotting scope.


After the win, his wife Katrina ( who has already won both a Gold and a Silver herself in shooting this Olympics ), rushed down from the audience and planted a big kiss right squarely on his face:

 

[JohnKSa]

Keith Sanderson has qualified first in Men's 25m Rapid Pistol, setting a new Olympic Record in the process!

Vincent Hancock kept his lead through the end of qualification for Men's Skeet and goes into the finals with a 1 bird lead and a new Olympic record for his qualification score--121 out of 125 birds.

 

[LanceOregon]

Keith Sanderson has qualified first in Men's 25m Rapid Pistol, setting a new Olympic Record in the process!

Alas, though, the finals just finished, and Keith totally fell apart. He did not manage to medal, despite being in first place going into the finals.

But he did great, as no American was even expected to qualify for the finals, much less end the qualifications in 1st place.

Rapid fire pistol is by far the most difficult of the Olympic shooting sports to master. 5 shots on 5 different targets within 4 seconds does not leave any room for error.

All of the winners were real experienced veterans. That Keith has done so very well with such little International experience bodes well for the future, if he continues to compete.

The Silver Medal winner, 46 yr old Ralf Schumann of Germany, is considered to be the greatest Rapid Fire Pistol Shooter in history. He has won Gold in the event 3 times before, as well as another Silver before too. With a total of 3 Golds and 2 Silvers now, no other Rapid Fire Marksman is anywhere near to having so many medals.

The Gold winner was from the Ukraine, and the Bronze went to another German. Looking at photos of the event, both Germans competed with Pardini pistols.

So Sanderson's performance was quite a pleasant surprise. He served 8 years in the Marine Corps, and is currently serving in the US Army. However, he is NOT a member of the US Army Marksmanship Training Unit. So perhaps that will now change.

The Army did allow him an extended leave of duty to go train at the US Olympics training center in Colorado this year, in order to prepare for these games.

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[JohnKSa]

Looks like Vincent Hancock did very well. He set a new Olympic Record with his tie for first place in Men's Skeet and then won the shootout for the gold medal.

Now we wait to see how Matt Emmons does in 3 Position Rifle...

 

[LanceOregon]

Wow, this is turning out to be the best American shooting Olympics in some time. I cannot remember our shotgun shooters ever doing this well before, to take 2 out of the 3 men's gold medals.

Overall in total Olympic medals, we now have a 7 medal lead over China. It is looking like we will probably come home with the most medals.

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[BrunoNorway]

Looks like Vincent Hancock did very well. He set a new Olympic Record with his tie for first place in Men's Skeet and then won the shootout for the gold medal.

The shootout for the gold betwen Tore Brovold from Norway and Vincent Hancock was nerveracking to watch. The presure got to great for Tore. Congraths from Norway. We are happy to take a silver.

 

[JohnKSa]

Those shootouts put a horrible amount of pressure on the shooters--makes me glad I'm only watching.

Emmons is doing well qualifying Men's 3 Position Rifle with a 399 out of 400 so far.

 

[JohnKSa]

Emmons was well in the lead with 1 shot to go. A 5.9 would have gotten him bronze, a 6.6 would have netted silver and a 6.7 would have been good enough for gold. His lowest scoring shot in the final to that point had been a 9.7--I'm not sure what happened, but he shot a 4.4 and dropped from first to fourth.

What's so poignant about this is that it mirrors what happened in the last Olympics. He was leading with one shot to go, fired on the wrong target and ended up finishing eighth. I can't imagine what's going through his mind right now...

No medal for the U.S. in Men's Three Position Rifle, the Chinese shooter who had been in second on the last shot finished with gold.

That leaves the U.S. with 6 medals in the shooting sports, 2 of each.

China ends with 7 shooting medals, 4 golds, 2 silver, 1 bronze.

 

[JohnKSa]

Here's an article on the Matt Emmons fiasco.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/shooting/news/newsid=224611.html#emmons+misses+gold+medal+once+again

"The way I come into a target is I start above the target and come down from 12 o'clock and get into the bull's-eye," he said. "And as I get down into the bull's-eye is when I start to get on the trigger."

On Sunday's last shot, "As I was starting to get on the trigger, the gun just went off," he said.

"I was like, 'Uh, that's not going to be good.'"

The most points a shooter can earn for a shot is 10.9; anything below 8.0 is considered unusually bad. A 4.4? That doesn't happen unless something goes terribly wrong. ​

The shot was so far off the scoring rings that it appeared that the electronic equipment wouldn't score it.

 

[LanceOregon]

Here's an article on the Matt Emmons fiasco.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/shooting/...dal+once+again

This is a really sad ending to what has been a fairy book story up until now for the couple at this Olympics.

Matt is starting to go down in Olympics history as one of the biggest chokers of all time. It is one thing to do this once, but like you said, this is practically a repeat of his previous fiasco of totally blowing the last shot in 3 position rifle back in 2004.

He and Katrina are probably back together at the Beer Garden again, drowning their sorrows.

Fortunately, he is only 27, so he could easily still compete in a couple more Olympics, if he wanted to.

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