Olympic Men’s Air Rifle Recap

Jonathan Hall's 592 was four points short of making the final. He finished in 27th place.

Two shooters tied the Olympic Men’s 10m Air Rifle record in London today as Alin Moldoveanu of Romania and Niccolo Campriani of Italy and a former member of the West Virginia University rifle team dropped but a single point during the qualifying round, both tallying 599s out of 600. Moldoveanu continued his strong shooting in the 10-shot final, where he fired a single shot that scored less than 10—and it was a 9.9 (in finals competition, the scoring rings are broken into tenths, with 10.9 the highest possible total for a center shot). He tacked on a 103.1 in the final for a 702.1 total and the gold medal.

Campriani’s 102.5 finals tally was just enough to hold off India’s Gagan Narang, who entered the final one point back of Campriani with a 598 and fired an excellent 103.1 for the bronze.

The U.S. duo of Jonathan Hall of Carrollton, GA, and Matt Emmons of Browns Mills, NJ, didn’t manage to make the finals. Competing in his first Olympics, Hall posted a 592 for a 27th place finish. Three-time Olympian Emmons wound up in 35th place with a 590. Emmons has another shot at the medal stand in Men’s 3 Position on August 6.