Young shooter clinches third gold in a surprise for France

(BEIJING, April 20) -- Josselin Henry shot down the third gold for France in the Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions with a total score of 1268.8 on the concluding day of the Good Luck Beijing 2008 ISSF World Cup on Sunday, April 20, at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall. Ukraine's Jury Sukhorukov scored 1268.0 to win the silver medal; Sergei Kovalenko of Russia followed in third place with 1266.9.

With just 0.8 points separating him and the silver medalist, Henry said the turning point was the sixth shot. After three rounds, he was able to over Sukhorukov during the final. The 25-year-old was quite surprised with his victory, his first world cup title.

His personal best record was set at the 2007 European Championships as the silver medalist. "We often practice in rainy days, so today's rainy weather did not affect my performance," said the champion.

Matthew Emmons of the United States barely missed a top-three spot with 1266.1 and placed fourth. In the same event in Athens 2004, the American sharpshooter fired at the wrong target as he was on the verge of victory and had to surrender a would-be crown to Chinese Jia Zhanbo.

Physically and mentally uNPRepared, Emmons was unsatisfied with his performance here and said he would do his best to win in the upcoming Games. He refused, however, to elaborate on his goals for Olympic gold.

The only Chinese shooter in this event, Zhang Fu, said due to weather-related problems, he failed to perform to his ability.

Constant rain and changing wind affected many of the original favorites, especially during the morning's second qualification event in the open-air venue. Among them, the world record holder and Sydney 2000 Olympic champion, Rajmond Debevec (SLO), managed to only place 12th. Also affected was the Athens 2004 Olympic champion and home favorite, Jia Zhanbo, who placed 13th. Reigning world champion Artem Khadjibekov (RUS) finished 17th.