Special report:
2008 Olympic
Games
BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhua) -- French shooter Josselin Henry clinched the
gold medal in the men's 50-meter rifle three positions with 1268.8 points at the
Good Luck Beijing ISSF World Cup here on Sunday, after the last shot that
changed the fate of many athletes.
Jury Sukhorukov from Ukraine was edged to the second place with1268.0
points, while Russian marksman Sergei Kovalenko followed with 1266.9 points.
Toping with 1173 points from the qualification round and a two-point
cushion from 40-year-old Sukhorukov, Henry, who had participated several World
Cups without desirable scores, led at the beginning of the final until the sixth
shot.
The 26-year-old French achieved just 8.9 point and was outperformed by
Sukhorukov, who had a silver in the discipline in the 2001 Milan World Cup, with
a 10.6.
When it came to the magic last shot, the Ukrainian got a 9.1. In the
attention of all spectators, Henry collected a decisive 10.5, which enabled him
to mount the top of podium.
The fate of Matthew Emmons, the 27-year-old Olympic gold medallist who lost
in the discipline at the Athens Olympic Games due to firing at a wrong target,
was also changed in the last shot.
Ranked third with 1169 points at the beginning, the American had been among
the top three before the tenth shot, in which a 9.1striped him of the bronze and
sent his Russian rival, 2005 World Cup Final champion, 38-year-old Kovalenko, to
the medal platform.
Chinese shooter Zhang Fu advanced to the final as the eighth with 1160
points and managed to climb to the seventh. however, all his efforts were in
vain after the last two shots, which dragged him back with a 0.5-point gap.
World record holder, Slovenian top shooter Rajmond Debevec, failed to
repeat his glory of 1287.9 points here and stopped in the qualification round
with 1157 points, ranking 12th.
After him with the same score was Chinese shooter Jia Zhanbo, who crowned
in Athens Olympic Games after the fatal mistake of Emmons.
