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Beijing Olympic Games 2008
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Shooting: Burnett's hopes fade
Derek Burnett's chances of reaching the final of the Men's Trap appear slim after he ended the first qualification event in 15th place.0 -
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From the BBC website:Czech Emmons claims opening gold
Katerina Emmons is the first gold medal winner of the 2008 Olympics
Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic had the honour of winning the first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics in the women's 10m air rifle event.
Lioubov Galkina of Russia claimed the silver, and Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia took bronze.
There was disappointment for the home fans as China's defending champion Du Li failed to get amongst the medals.
Emmons capped her win by setting an Olympic record of 503.5 points, after shooting a perfect 400 in qualifying.
The 24-year-old Czech wife of American shooter Matt Emmons shot a near flawless 103.5 in the final to take the gold.
She revealed afterwards how she overcame nerves and a splitting headache to become Olympic champion.
"Thank God it's over because I was so nervous," she said.
"I had a headache this morning. I felt so terrible that I did not know how I would shoot.
"So to win the first gold medal of this Olympics is pretty amazing."
Emmons' win at the the Beijing Shooting Range Hall marks a big improvement on four years ago, where she finished with bronze behind Li and Galkina.
Russian shooter Galkina finished just a point behind the champion to claim silver once more. Li, who fled the hall in tears, blamed the pressure of competing at home for her failure in the competition saying, "she wasn't fully prepared for the pressure of competing at home". International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge was among the crowd of 5,000 to present the first medals of the Games.
I'm delighted for her, she almost gave up shooting after the last Olympics and to set a new Olympic Record at the same time is fantastic.
Pressure's on Matt now
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Derek's lying in 15th place after three of five rounds. Well, it's not first like last time, but he's still well in range of a medal.
1|1171|KOSTELECKY David|Czech Republic |24 |24 |25 |73
2|1374|PELLIELO Giovanni|Italy |25 |25 |23 |73
3|1373|FRASCA Erminio|Italy |23 |24 |25 |72
4|1612|ALIPOV Alexey|Russian Fed. |23 |24 |25 |72
5|1682|VARGA Erik|Slovakia |23 |25 |24 |72
6|1023|DIAMOND Michael|Australia |25 |23 |24 |72
7|1147|GLASNOVIC Josip|Croatia |25 |23 |24 |72
8|1432|MEQLAD Naser|Kuwait |23 |24 |24 |71
9|1283|BINDRICH Karsten|Germany |24 |23 |24 |71
10|1011|DASQUE Juan Carlos|Argentina |21 |24 |25 |70
11|1679|FILIPOVIC Mario|Slovakia |22 |24 |24 |70
12|1338|SANDHU Manavjit Singh|India |23 |23 |24 |70
13|1411|LEE Young Sik|Korea |23 |24 |23 |70
14|1119|LI Yang|China|24 |21 |24 |69
15|1347|BURNETT Derek|Ireland|24 |22 |23 |69
Full results here.
RTE, mind you, is just looking to get the sensationalist story:
Derek Burnett's chances of reaching the final of the Men's Trap appear slim after he ended the first qualification event in 15th place.
Burnett hit 69 of the 75 targets in this afternoon's qualifiers, but with just the top six progressing to the final, even a perfect score in tomorrow's remaining two rounds may not be enough for the 37-year-old.
The Longford sharpshooter scored 24 and 22 respectively in his opening two rounds.
Burnett is competing in his third Olympics for Ireland and had realistic medal hopes, but with just two rounds to go his chance seems to be gone.
And we can probably look forward to this for pretty much every Irish athlete over there who doesn't win a gold medal. It'd get under your fingernails - we get absolutely minimal funding compared to groups like the GAA, FAI, IRFU or the others who don't bring home medals, but you get guys like Derek, Dave Malone, Philip Murphy and others who take on the best in the world and win on a regular basis, and they get slated for not walking out with a medal (or even halfway to the medals, like this). :mad:0 -
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From the Games website:Chinese gold medalist Pang Wei
Pang Wei of China competes. (Photo credit: Phil Walter/Getty Images)
China's Pang Wei was declared the gold medal winner in the Men's 10m Air Pistol event, held at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall during day 1 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 9, 2008 in Beijing
Pang Wei of China celebrates victory on the podium. (Photo credit: Harry How/Getty Images)
Medalists pose on the podium. (Photo credit: Phil Walter/Getty Images)
Pang Wei of China during medal ceremony.(Photo credit: Bao Feifei)/Xinhua)
Also from the Games website:(BEIJING, August 9) -- Young Chinese shooter Pang Wei stormed home to win the gold medal in the Men's 10m Air Pistol in Beijing on August 9. Pang shot a final score of 688.2.
Pang, who is only 22 years old, was unthreatened in the final round and ended up winning by the wide margin of 3.7 points. The Republic of Korea's Jin Jong-oh won the silver medal with a final score of 684.5.
The battle for the bronze medal was a tightly contested affair between Kim Jong-su of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the United States' Jason Turner. Kim nailed the bronze medal with a strong finish, shooting 10.3 and 10.0 for his last two shots, which gave him a final score of 683.0.
Turner's last two shots were poor and he finished in equal fourth place with his compatriot Brian Beaman at the end of the final round. Both men shot a final score of 682.0. Turner was officially awarded fourth place after wining a shoot-off between the two Americans, shooting 10.5 to Beaman's 10.3.
Pang shot a score of 586 in the qualification round, which was two points higher than the next best score, shot by both Jin and Kim.
Pang's coach Wang Yifu, was the gold medalist in the event at Athens 2004.
One of the favorites for the event, France's Franck Dumoulin failed to qualify for the final round. Dumoulin won the gold medal for the event at Sydney 2000.
Full Results Here.0 -
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From the Games website:Feature: Katerina Emmons -- Shooting Golden Girl
Golden girl Emmons takes aim (Photo credit: Chen Gong)
You could say that shooting is in the blood for Katerina Emmons, the first gold medallist of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Not only is the winner of the Women's 10 meter Air Rifle the daughter of two-time world champion Petr Kurka, who doubles as her coach, she is also married to Athens shooting gold medallist, Matt Emmons.
In fact, the 24-year-old Czech Republic sharp-shooter met her husband-to-be at Athens four years ago, when, competing under her maiden name Katerina Kurkova, she won a bronze medal and Matt, representing USA, took the Men's 50m Rifle Prone gold (a title he will defend in Beijing on August 15).
Katerina, now ranked No. 4 in the world, described Matt as her "best teammate" after clinching her first Olympic gold medal with an Olympic Record 503.5 points, which included a perfect score of 400 points in the qualifying round. As a pair, they "work together as the best team in the world," she added.
They are considered to be shooting's 'golden couple,' although their Athens meeting was more than your average chance encounter between fellow competitors.
Instead, it came about under far stranger circumstances. After finishing her own events, Katerina worked as a shooting commentator for a Czech TV station.
One of her duties was to report on the Men's 50m Rifle Three Position, an event future hubby Matt was winning with ease going into the final round. Then, mysteriously and somewhat unusually, the stuff of nightmares happened.
Matt fired at the wrong target, lost his lead and missed out on the medals, finishing eighth.
Feeling sorry for him, as one shooter to another, Katerina sought Matt afterwards and found him seeking solace in a nearby beer garden. A conversation struck up and a relationship started -- albeit arranged around the world's major shooting tournaments -- their second meeting, for example, was in Bangkok.
They married in 2007 and have split their time traveling between the U.S. and the Czech Republic.
Shooting, though, wasn't Katerina's original sporting love. Growing up in Plzeň, the fourth biggest city in the Czech Republic, she competed as a swimmer until an illness ended a fledgling career.
To stave off boredom, her champion-shot father -- who, unlike many sports-mad dads, hadn't pushed his daughter toward his own chosen sport -- suggested she try rifle shooting, which Katerina soon discovered she could excel at.
What started as fun and occasional practice soon became serious sport. Her first major international medal came in 2002 when she won the World Championships at the tender age of 18.
The bronze medal she won in the Women's 10m Air Rifle at Athens followed two years later, and although she failed to do better than 27th in the Women's Three Position Rifle competition, she managed to progress in her main event, taking a silver medal in the 2006 World Championships and claiming European Championship gold in 2007.
Having won the Good Luck Beijing International Sports Shooting Federation (ISSF) World Cup earlier this year, when she matched Chinese champion and World No. 2 Du Li's 2003 World Record score of 504.9 points, Emmons came to Beijing with high hopes.
Proud first gold medallist of Beijing 2008 (Photo credit: Chen Gong)
Not that she crumbled under the weight of expectation. "I dealt with the pressure," Katerina told reporters after her victory. "The only way is just not to think about it. Just pull the trigger and shoot."
She is not sure whether or not she will eventually change her nationality and compete for the USA. "I will leave the door open. If I can, I'd like to shoot for the Czech Republic for as long as possible."
Indeed, Katerina's own Beijing Olympic odyssey is not yet over -- she could become a double Games medallist as she is due to compete in the Women's 50m Rifle Three Position competition on August 14, although it isn't her strongest event.
Then, there is also her dual role supporting Matt, who also has a double Olympic quest. "Half of my job is done and I've done it well. Matt is now going to do his job," she said.
With one medal in the bag, a glut of shooting gold medals could be heading back to the Emmons household from Beijing.
A kiss from hubby Matt (Photo credit: Chen Gong)0 -
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Hey Sparks, I betcha she wouldnt have to wait 2 months for a replacement stock from Anschutz
;)
I bet she wouldn't have to wait 2 minutes, you'll have to start wearing a skirt Sparks!
Derek's reason for a below par performance, other than the grueling conditions, "Theres a few more revs on that machine", I'm crossing everything for him!0 -
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Another shooting gold for China:Guo Wenjun of China won the gold medal in the women's 10m air pistol, beating Russia's Natalia Paderina with a new Olympic record in the final.
Georgia's Nino Salukvadze, who almost left the Games earlier on Sunday with her 35-member team over a conflict with Russia at home, took bronze. After putting down her pistol on her final shot, she wiped tears from her eyes.
Russia's Paderina, who had led after the qualifying round, might have been rattled when there was no applause as she was introduced to the crowd of 2,000 spectators. There had been warm applause for the other finalists and loud cheering for Guo.
Salukvadze took the bronze medal after moving up from fourth place after qualifying. Salukvadze, who won a silver medal in this event for the Soviet Union in 1988, had remained calm throughout the final and overtook Munkzul Tsogbadrah of Mongolia in the final to get on the podium.She congratulated the winner and then she and Paderina shook hands and embraced. Salukvadze, one of 35 Olympic athletes from Georgia told to stay in Beijing despite the conflict with Russia, said she was worried about the fate of her country.
"I've been really nervous," she said after collecting her medal. "Since yesterday I thought we would leave the Games. The Russian political leaders, our political leaders and other state political leaders should sit and talk about this."
Georgia's team had offered to withdraw over the conflict with Russia in South Ossetia. But President Mikheil Saakashvili sent a message overnight instructing them to stay.
Saakashvili's message to continue was relayed to the team at a 0200 (1900 BST) meeting on Sunday by the country's first lady who is in Beijing, spokesman Giorgi Tchanishvili said. "The whole team has had hardly any sleep," he said. "We were ready to leave the Olympic Games and we were waiting until very late for this decision.
"The First Lady [Sandra] then addressed the whole team in the Olympic Village at about 2am and told us we should stay in the best interest of the country."0 -
Derek Burnett didn't make the final
He had a really bad second shoot scoring 22 and 19 to leave him in 29th place overall with 110.
Final is at 8am and the finalists are:
1 1612ALIPOV Alexey
RUS 23 24 25 25 24 121
2 1171KOSTELECKY David
CZE 24 24 25 24 24 121
3 1373FRASCA Erminio
ITA 23 24 25 24 24 120
4 1374PELLIELO GiovanniITA 25 25 23 24 23 120
5 1023DIAMOND Michael
AUS 25 23 24 24 23 119 +3
6 1147GLASNOVIC Josip
CRO 25 23 24 25 22 119 +3
29 1347 BURNETT Derek IRL 24 22 23 22 19 110
Diamond had to go through a shoot off to make the final.0 -
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From RTE:Burnett bows out in Beijing
Ireland's Derek Burnett failed to make the final and bowed out of the traps shooting competition on Sunday.
Burnett came into Sunday's competition with 69 points out of a possible 75 after the first three rounds on Saturday.
He needed 49 out of 50 points from Sunday's two rounds, however, in round four he missed three of his first nine shots to bow out of the competition.
One of Ireland's best hopes of reaching a final in Beijing, Burnett admitted afterwards that he was 'devastated' by the result.
"It's really disappointing not to qualify. I have no real excuses. I never got a feel of the place. It just kept biting me one round after the next!
"The fourth round, the idea today was to try and start strong. Everything was going along nicely. I got a broken target. I had to repeat it and I missed it and it went a little bit pear-shaped from there.
"Conditions wouldn't be ideal. You know, I can't really blame conditions because I've been in them before.
"It's more the range. I never got comfortable at it and I just couldn't make up the ground from yesterday. You spend so long trying to qualify and it's so difficult to get here so it's totally devastating," he said.
Burnett finished 29th of the 35 Trap shooting competitors overall, with a five-round total of 110 clays out of 125. The top qualifier was Russia's Alexey Alipov who scored 121.0
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