Ukrainian Ayvazian wins men's 50-meter rifle prone gold
15/8/2008 16:58
Ukrainian shooter Artur Ayvazian led all the way in the men's 50-meter
rifle prone to win the Olympic gold at the Beijing Shooting Range in Beijing
today.
His final score was 702.7 points, one point ahead of American
runner-up Matthew Emmons. The bronze was picked up by Australian Warren Potent
with 700.5 points.
Ayvazian, who topped the qualification round, advanced
into the final with 599 points, or one point below the world record but two
points more than the score of Emmons.
The 35-year-old veteran shooter did a
decent job in the final round, making all his shots above or equalling 10.0
point.
Despite a not-so-good start of a 10.0 in the first shot, defending
champion Emmons pulled up his socks to impose a big threat to the
former.
Always the last to open fire, the 27-year-old American impressed
spectators by scoring five of his ten shots above 10.5 points.
After the
ninth shot, gap between the duo was narrowed to 1.1 point.
In the last shot,
Ayvazian made a quick fire.
A 10.3.
There was no chance for Emmons to
overtake, although he did make a higher score of 10.4.
The 46-year-old
Potent, the oldest among all finalists who had equalled world record of the
discipline with a staggering 704.8 points at Good Luck Beijing World Cup, just
colllected 595 points in the qualification this time and was ranked
fourth.
But he managed to make a steady progress, climbing to the third after
the fifth shot and hence maintaining his position.
Russian Konstantin
Prikhodtchenko made a surprising start with 10.8, 10.6 and 10.9 points and
surged to the third before the fourth shot, lending a glim of hope for the
shooting powerhouse nation to end its gold drought in shooting events at the
Beijing Olympics. But the 36-year-old failed to keep his momentum and slipped to
the fifth after the seventh shot, a 9.9.
Two Chinese shooters, Qiu Jian and
Jia Zhanbo, finished 19th and 27th among the 56 shooters and failed to enter the
final.
Xinhua
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