Emmons shoots wrong target, loses gold medal
Sure win turns into 8th place as Austrian gets bull's eye for 3rdThe Associated Press
Updated: 8:07 a.m. ET Aug. 22, 2004ATHENS, GREECE - American shooter Matt Emmons fired at the wrong target on his final shot Sunday, blowing a commanding lead in the Olympic 50-meter three-position rifle event and allowing Jia Zhanbo of China to take the gold.
Emmons, far in front after nine shots in the final, aimed and fired at the target in lane three while he was shooting in lane two. When no score appeared on the electronic scoring device for his lane, he turned to officials and gestured that there was some sort of error.
“I shot,” he appeared to say as three officials in red blazers approached.
The officials went back and huddled briefly before announcing that Emmons of Browns Mills, N.J., had cross-fired and had a score of zero for the last shot that dropped him into eighth position with a score of 1,257.4 points.
Jia had a score of 1,264.5.
Michael Anti of Winterville, N.C., moved into second because of Emmons’ mistake with 1,263.1 points. Christian Planer of Austria took the bronze at 1,262.8.
If Emmons had fired at the right target, he would have needed only a 7 to win the gold.
While judges indicated that Emmons hit a target on his final shot, albeit the wrong one, it was unclear if he scored a bull's eye. Planer was given a bull's eye, his highest score of the final round.
“Matt Emmons is the best shooter I’ve ever seen,” Anti said. “I don’t know what the shot was, but it was probably a 10.”
