Emmons Finishes Sixth at World Cup USA
OutdoorHub 03.31.14
The twitter hashtag really says it all.
@MattEmmonsUSA: “6th place in 3×40. I always give it my best, today that’s all I could do. I’m happy with it, saw some things to work on. #imback”
Competing in his first World Cup since winning bronze at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Matt Emmons (Brown Mills, N.J., pictured) placed sixth today at the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Fort Benning, Ga. in the Men’s Three-Position Rifle event.
Emmons, who had taken time off since the Olympics, qualified for the Final in second place with an impressive qualification score of 1174; as well as 71x – known as “inner tens.” Inner tens are not used to calculate the actual score but are the number of shots that are in a smaller ring within the center ten ring and are only used in tie-breaking situations.
In the Final, Emmons struggled in the kneeling portion and remained in eighth place until the last series of prone shots where he moved up to sixth place. He later shot the highest score of the first standing round (51.5) that would then move him into fourth place. Emmons then faced Sanjev Rajput of India in a shootoff in the first, single-elimination shot where he shot a 9.6 – just .1 point behind Rajput and thus was eliminated from the competition.
Upon his elimination, Emmons smiled proudly to the audience as he bowed and presented himself to the cheering, home-country crowd. Emmons score in the Final was 411.2.
Shooting at his home range, Joseph Hein (Mason, Mich.) of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit finished in 26th place with a score of 1157. Ryan Anderson (Wasilla, Alaska) finished in 35th place with a score of 1150.
NCAA Smallbore champion Tim Sherry (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) was only shooting in a Minimum Qualifying Score position for the U.S. and thus not eligible for the Finals, but his score today of 1164 would have put him in 12th place, just two points out of qualifying for the Finals.
2012 Olympic gold medalist Niccolo Campriani of Italy won the gold medal in this event. Hongwei Kang of China won silver and Friday’s Men’s Air Rifle gold medalist Nazar Louginets or Russia won bronze.
Women’s Sport Pistol also took place today and while the U.S. was shut out of the Finals, solid scores were once again posted by the U.S. competitors. The highest U.S. finish came from Women’s Sport Pistol National Champion Teresa Meyer Chambers (Dearborn, Mich.) who finished in 11th place with a score of 579 – two points out of qualifying for the Finals.
Enkelejda Shehaj (Naples, Fla.) finished in 28th place with a score of 568 and 2012 Olympian Sandra Uptagrafft (Phenix City, Ala.) finished in 33rd place with a score of 564.
Heidi Diethelm Gerber of Switzerland won the gold in Women’s Sport Pistol. Nine-time World Cup gold medalist Nino Salukvadze of Georgia won the silver and 2013 World Cup Finals gold medalist JingJing Zhang of China won the bronze medal.
View complete results from all of the events at this World Cup here: http://www.issf-sports.org/calendar/championship_schedule_by_discipline.ashx?cshipid=1510.
More than 430 athletes from 53 countries have come to Fort Benning to compete in ten Olympic events in the Rifle and Pistol disciplines. Competition continues through Wednesday and up tomorrow at the ISSF World Cup is Women’s Three-Position Rifle and Youth Olympic Games competition in the Air Rifle and Pistol events.
Shooting for the U.S. in the Women’s Three-Position Rifle event are 2012 Olympian Sarah Scherer (Woburn, Mass.), Amy Sowash (Richmond, Ky.), who competed in Women’s Air Rifle on Saturday and Erin Lorenzen (Fort Wayne, Ind.) of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit.
