Emmons holds her nerve to win Games' first gold

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-10 11:31

Katerina Emmons from the Czech Republic won the women's 10m air rifle gold with a new Olympic final record of 503.5 points. Lioubov Galkina of Russia (502.1) got silver while Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia (500.9) took bronze.

It was an event where the formbook took a toss.

World No. 1 Sonja Pfeilschifter failed to make the final round, for which she holds the world record, after finishing 12th in qualifying.

Defending champion Du Li finished fifth, nerves getting to her in the final round.

Emmons, bronze medalist at Athens, received the first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics from Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee.

"I am so glad it is over, because I was so nervous," Emmons said later.

"It was so hard, because there wasn't much time between the qualifications and the final. We were running around and our heart rate got high.

"I was just trying to shoot my best shots. In the final, I didn't have a great hold which you could see from my shots."

Emmons is married to US shooter Matthew Emmons who will compete in the men's 50-meter rifle prone and 50-meter rifle 3-position.

The two had met at Athens when Matt missed gold by shooting at the wrong target and Katerina went to commiserate with him.

"I'm more proud of her than if I were to do it myself," Matthew said.

Russian Galkina finished with silver for the second successive time. But she had no complaints: "I was satisfied with the final result. I tried really hard to surpass Emmons, but she was uncatchable."

China Daily

(China Daily 08/10/2008 page4)