Emmons Wins Gold in Prone Rifle
Aug 20, 2004

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Earlier this year, Matt Emmons discovered someone had sabotaged his rifles.

Whoever did it might have helped him win a gold medal.

"To be honest, I think it was a blessing in disguise," Emmons said. "This gun right now is way better than the gun I had."

Using a gun loaned to him by a training partner back home, Emmons won the 50-meter prone rifle competition Friday. Christian Lusch of Germany won the silver medal and Sergei Martynov of Belarus took the bronze.

Emmons' medal hopes were nearly derailed a few months ago when, with the Olympic trials just around the corner, he realized he had a problem.

"I unpacked my gun and I noticed that something wasn't right," Emmons said. "Sure enough, somebody had done something to it."

At first, Emmons thought his rifle was just dirty, but he soon realized the severity of the damage.

"I shot it and I couldn't get the shell out," he said. "I said, 'Something's wrong here."'

Emmons said it couldn't have been an accident.

"Oh no, no," Emmons said. "Somebody took a screwdriver and went in."

Before the trials, he turned to Amber Darland, who shot with Emmons in college at Alaska-Fairbanks and still trains with him.

"I used her gun last year at the World Cup Final as well," Emmons said. "I knew it would work. I put it in, and it's been shooting great."

Emmons, 23, led all shooters after Friday's qualifying round with a score of 599, which meant that only one of his 60 shots failed to hit the bull's-eye that is 10.4 millimeters in diameter - smaller than a dime.

In the final, shots are measured in fractions of a point, with a maximum of 10.9. With two shots left, Emmons' lead was just 0.3, but he made back-to-back 10.6s to finish at 703.3. Lusch finished with a 702.2.

"I wasn't really worried about what anyone else was doing, honestly," said Emmons, the 2002 world champion. "I knew in the middle it was kind of close."

Emmons, of Browns Mills, N.J., qualified for three events at the Athens Games, becoming the first U.S. shooter to do so. He failed to reach the final in 10-meter air rifle Monday and will compete in three-position rifle Sunday.

He doesn't know who was responsible for ruining his old rifles - he only has guesses.

"It's one of those things I've kind of forgotten about because, I mean, I'll never be able to prove anything," he said.

Besides, it's a moot point now. With Darland's gun, Emmons won a gold medal - and he knows a reward is in order when he gets home:

"I owe her a really nice dinner when we get back."

America's Smotek Finishes Sixth in Skeet
Aug 19, 2004

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Twelve years after her first Olympic appearance, American Connie Smotek was back, finishing sixth in skeet shooting Thursday.

Smotek, who turns 40 on Sunday, made her first 11 shots of the finals but couldn't move into medal position. She finished the final round 22-for-25 for a total score of 90, seven shots behind winner Diana Igaly of Hungary.

After her final shot, Smotek smiled and walked over to exchange fist bumps with teammate Kim Rhode, who finished fifth.

Smotek competed in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, finishing 25th. Back then, women competed against men in skeet. Women's skeet shooting made its debut at the 2000 Sydney Games.

Smotek, of Bryan, Texas, made the Olympic team by shooting a 488 over the course of two events. Last fall at Colorado Springs, Colo., Smotek took a three-shot lead over Haley Dunn of Eddyville, Iowa. In March at Fort Benning, Ga., both Dunn and Smotek shot 229 over three days and were well ahead of the field heading into the final, where Smotek shot a 24 to earn her trip to Athens.

In Thursday's qualifying round, Smotek shot a 68, finishing ahead of world record holder Svetlana Demina of Russia and world No. 2 Maarit Lepomaki of Finland.

American Rhode Takes Gold in Women's Double Trap
Aug 18, 2004

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - American Kim Rhode won the gold medal in double trap shooting Wednesday, staking a unique claim as the first and last winner of the Olympic event.

Rhode won the 1996 gold when double trap was introduced at the Atlanta Olympics, and she now owns the 2004 medal in the event, which is being eliminated. She also won the bronze in 2000.

"It's an amazing feeling," said Rhode, of El Monte, Calif. "I don't think it's quite sunk in yet that I've won. It usually hits me when I get home."

In women's 25-meter pistol, Maria Grozdeva of Bulgaria won the gold medal, while Lenka Hykova of the Czech Republic won the silver and Irada Ashumova of Azerbaijan took the bronze.

Rhode and Lee Bo Na of South Korea were tied at 110 entering the 20-round final. Both hit their first four sets of targets, and soon distanced themselves from the rest of the pack. Rhode was the last shooter to miss in the final, failing to hit the second target in the 10th round.

Tied after 13 rounds, Lee missed the second target on her 14th turn, while Rhode hit both to take the lead. She would not trail again in the competition.

After hitting one of two targets on her final attempt, Rhode turned around and didn't not immediately celebrate.

"I didn't really know where I stood," she said. "I wasn't too sure when I walked off because nobody cheered right away. So when they started cheering, that's when I kind of knew."

Lee finished with a 145, one shot behind Rhode, to take the silver. Gao E of China defeated countrywoman Li Qingnian in a shoot-off to win the bronze.

In double trap, competitors shoot at a pair of four-inch clay targets that exit simultaneously from two of three underground bunkers. They are allowed only one shot per target.

Rhode will compete in skeet later in these Olympics, and for future games plans on shooting skeet and trap.

Loper Settles for Fourth in Women's Trap, Balogh Wins Gold
Aug 16, 2004

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - With an Olympic medal at stake, Collyn Loper's curiosity got the better of her.

Tied for third place with three shots remaining in the trap shooting final Monday, Loper looked up at the scoreboard, which she rarely does. She missed her next attempt and finished fourth, one shot behind South Korea's Lee Bo-na.

Suzanne Balogh of Australia pulled away from the field to win the gold, and Spain's Maria Quintanal took the silver on a blustery day at the Markopoulo Olympic shooting center.

"I usually don't look. I usually don't want to know where I am," Loper said. "I knew the second that I called for the bird that I was going to miss it, because I had just thought 'hey, look I won a bronze."'

A genetic disease left Loper, of Indian Springs, Ala., blind in her right eye since birth, but she does not think of it as a handicap.
 © GETTY IMAGES / Clive Mason

"Some people think that's it's such a disadvantage, and I would disagree with them," she said. "I've been dealing with this for so long. And I've never had vision in both my eyes anyway."

Loper was first handed a shotgun at age 9 and her father taught her to shoot at age 10. At 14, Loper finished third among juniors in her first international competition in Cairo, Egypt, shooting against competitors up to seven years older.

In a sport where one eye is closed while aiming, Loper found a fit for her skills. Even though she's naturally right-handed she had to train herself to shoot with her left. This hasn't hampered her, whether shooting 4-inch clay disks in trap competition or hunting - the first deer she ever shot was a 10-point buck in Davis Island, Miss.

Loper moved into medal position by making her first 13 shots of the finals. She missed four of her next seven to fall back, and then failed to hit a high target moving right-to-left on her 23rd shot after glancing at the board.

Balogh finished with 88 points after making 22 of 25 shots in the final round. Quintanal of Spain had 84. Lee made 23 shots - the most of any finalist - to finish at 83. Loper finished with 82.

Loper has already missed four days of class of her senior year of high school, and will miss a few more since she plans to stay around Athens for about a week.

"I'm going to go out and celebrate tonight," Loper said. "I don't have anything to be mad about."

Shoot-offs and Records Abound in Shooting Events
Aug 15, 2004

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Olena Kostevych needed an extra shot to win her gold medal. Russia's Alexei Alipov ended the suspense early in his victory.

Alipov missed just one target in two days, finishing with a perfect final round on a blustery Sunday to win the gold in trap shooting and tie two Olympic records.

"The final was difficult," he said. "The other shooters missed some shots due to the wind. But I didn't worry about it."

Kostevych, from Ukraine, won the gold medal in 10-meter air pistol, needing a shoot-off to beat Jasna Sekaric of Serbia-Montenegro in the final.

Kostevych and Sekaric were tied at 483.3 after 10 shots in the final round, and 40 shots in qualifying, setting the stage for a one-shot tiebreaker. Kostevych shot a 10.2 to Sekaric's 9.4 to win the gold.

On the men's side, Alipov shot all 25 targets in the final to finish with an overall score of 149, tying the Olympic record. In qualifying, Alipov also matched an Olympic record, scoring 124 out of a possible 125. Both records were set in Atlanta by Michael Diamond of Australia.

Qualifying consists of five 25-target rounds shot over two days. Alipov missed once in his third round on Saturday. He shot all 50 targets in qualifying Sunday, and followed that up with his perfect run in the final. The run was even more impressive, given steady winds more than 20 mph and even stiffer gusts.

Italy's Giovanni Pellielo won the silver in trap, finishing three points behind Alipov. Adam Vella of Australia took the bronze with a 145.

Giovanni Pellielo of Italy shoots during the men's trap finals at the Markopoulo Olympic Shooting Centre on 15/08/2004 © ATHOC / GETTY IMAGES

Lance Bade of Vancouver, Wash., who won a bronze medal in trap in Atlanta in 1996, finished fifth after hitting 21 targets in the final.

Before Kostevych and Sekaric could fire the deciding shots, two other tiebreakers were needed for lower positions.

In the bronze-medal shoot-off, Maria Grozdeva of Bulgaria shot a 10.4, while China's Ren Jie shot a 9.7. They had been tied at 482.3, one point behind Kostevych and Sekaric.

Earlier, Natalia Paderina of Russia shot a 10 to move into fifth place ahead of Munkhbayar Dorjsuren of Germany, who shot a 9.3.

Rebecca Snyder of Grand Junction, Colo., was the top American in air pistol, finishing tied for 16th in the qualifying round. Libby Callahan of Upper Marlboro, Md., who at 52 is the oldest U.S. athlete competing in Athens, was 30th.

Diamond, who won the gold in the past two Olympics, did not reach the final round, placing eighth in qualifying with a 119 out of 125. Only the top six make it to the final in trap.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Lioubov Galkina of Russia won the gold medal Friday in the 50-meter rifle three-position event with an Olympic-record score of 688.4.

Galkina was second after the qualifying round behind Olga Dovgun of Kazakhstan. Galkina shot 101.4 in the final to pull ahead, while Dovgun fell to fourth. Valentina Turisini of Italy won the silver. Wang Chengyi of China equaled Galkina's final round score, and jumped into the third to take the bronze.

In women's three-position, competitors fire 20 shots each in the prone, standing and kneeling positions at a target 50 meters away. The eight best shooters in qualifying advance to the final, which consists of 10 shots in the standing position.

Last Saturday, Galkina missed out on winning the first gold medal of the Olympics. She set an Olympic record in 10-meter air rifle qualifying, shooting a 399, but lost out on the gold on the last shot of the final. 

German Sets Shooting World Record
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Aug 19, 2004

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Manfred Kurzer of Germany set a world record Thursday on his way to a gold medal in men's 10-meter running target.

Kurzer scored 590 out of a possible 600 in qualifying, topping the record of 588 set by Igor Kolesov of Russia in 2002 and equaled by Yang Ling of China later that year.

Kurzer finished with a 682.4 after the final round, short of the overall mark. 

Al Maktoum Ties Olympic Record in Double Trap
Aug 17, 2004

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum of the United Arab Emirates tied an Olympic record Tuesday, winning the gold medal in double trap shooting.

Al Maktoum scored 189 points, matching the total that Mark Russell of Australia reached in Sydney in 2000. The 40-year-old Al Maktoum had the rest of the field playing for silver in the final round, finishing 10 shots ahead of Rajyavardhan Rathore of India.

Wang Zheng of China won the bronze with a 178.

Al Maktoum led by six shots after setting an Olympic record with 144 points in qualifying. Russell had 143 in 2000.

American Glenn Eller of Houston, the world champion, failed to qualify for the finals. 

Chinese Competitor Sets World Air Rifle Record
Aug 16, 2004

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Zhu Qinan of China set a world record in the shooting competition Monday, winning the gold medal in the 10-meter men's air rifle.

Zhu scored 702.7, topping the mark of 702.5 set by American Jason Parker in 2003.

Zhu's 599 in the qualifying round set an Olympic record. Silver medalist Li Jie of China (598) and Abhinav Bindra of India (597) also surpassed the previous mark of 596, set by Austria's Wolfram Waibel in Atlanta in 1996.

Olympic Records Set in Air Rifle, Air Pistol
Aug 14, 2004

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - A Chinese shooter and two Russians set Olympic records during the air rifle and air pistol events Saturday.

China's Li Du scored 502 points to win the gold medal in the women's 10-meter air rifle, and silver medalist Lioubov Galkina's 399 in qualifying was also an Olympic record.

Later, Mikhail Nestruev scored 591 in qualification for the 10-meter air pistol to break another mark.

The previous women's qualifying record of 397 was set by Petra Horneber of Germany in Atlanta in 1996, then equaled by Kang Cho-hyun of South Korea at Sydney four years ago. The overall women's record had been Yeo Kab-soon's 498.2 in Barcelona in 1992.

The men's qualifying record of 590 had been jointly set by Yifu Wang of China and Franck Dumoulin of France on the same day in Sydney.