Jia Zhanbo of China yesterday won the gold medal in the men’s rifle shooting three positions event at the Athens Olympics after long-time leader Matthew Emmons inexplicably crossfired on his final shot, scoring zero.
In the skeet, Andrea Benelli of Italy won a shoot off with Marko Kemppainen of Finland to get the gold. But the shock of the day came when Emmons, who had already won gold in the 50m rifle prone event, dropped from first to eighth and last when he crossfired, sending his final shot to eventual bronze medalist Christian Planer’s target, thus scoring zero.
The qualifying round leader Jia, therefore, suddenly found himself in the gold medal position while Emmons’ compatriot Michael Anti took silver.
Jia scored 398 prone, 386 standing, 387 kneeling and 93.5 in his final shots for a total of 1264.5 points, finishing 1.4 points ahead of Anti, who scored 398 prone, 381 standing, 385 kneeling and 98.1 in his final shots for 1263.1 points. Planer scored 396 prone, 381 standing, 390 kneeling and 95.8 in his final shots for 1262 points and a bronze.
Atlanta 1996 bronze medal winner Benelli won gold in the men’s skeet in a much more conventional manner, shooting off with Kemppainen — who equaled the world record with a 125 125 score — after both were tied on 149 points.
“I’ve been in three Olympic finals, in Atlanta where I was third, in Sydney where I was fifth and now in Athens, I finally won the gold medal,” said Benelli.
The bronze medal went to Juan Miguel Rodriguez of Cuba, who won a shoot off against Nasser Al-Attiya of Qatar and Shawn Dulohery of the United States after they all finished on 147 points.
Emmons, a trained accountant, got his numbers terribly wrong yesterday. The American sharpshooter was just one shot away from a second Olympic gold medal when he fired at the wrong target in the final round.
Gone was the chance of gold — or even silver or bronze. “Crap happens,” said the 23-year-old. “I’ll live to shoot another day.”
Emmons, the native of New Jersey, said he had never had a “cross-target” violation in at least six years of international shooting.
Although Emmons first appeared stunned and slightly embarrassed, quickly leaving the arena after congratulating the medal winners, he was soon back to his usual affable self.
“I didn’t look at the number above the target before the last shot,” said Emmons. “I usually always look (through the scope) at the number first and then drop down to the target. “I was just working on calming myself down and getting a good shot off. I should have looked.”
Had Emmons peered through the scope at the number above the target, he would have seen he was aiming not at his own target in lane No. 2 but at the target on lane three — belonging to Planer.
“It’s only happened once or twice in my whole life,” said Emmons. “It’s never happened to me in international competition. When my score didn’t register I didn’t think it could have been a cross fire because I never do that.” He led the field with bull’s eyes — scores of 10.0 to 10.4 — on four of his first nine shots in the final and needed only a modest 7.2 to win gold on his 10th and final shot. He got an 8.1 on his last shot — but on Planer’s target.
