ISSF

Published on 12 Aug 2015

First-time finalist Grigoryan (RUS) beats Olympic Champ Emmons (USA) to win Rifle Prone Gold

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Marco Dalla Dea

The 23-year old Russian shooter, participating in his first ISSF final match, duelled with USA's 2004 Olympic Champion Emmons right to the last shot to finish atop of the podium. Rio 2016 Olympic quotas went to Jerabek (CZE) and Grimmel (DEN).

Russia's first-time finalist Kirilll Grigoryan (23) claimed the men's 50m Rifle Prone gold medal, today, during Day-5 of the ISSF Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan.

 

In spite of being the youngest and the lowest ranked (62nd in the world) finalists, Grigoryan shot a great match, moving atop of the scoreboard since the first series.

 

Shooting solidly, he duelled neck and neck against the 2004 Olympic Champion Matthew Emmons of USA (34) - currently ranked fourth in the world in this event – right to the last shot.

 

Scoring 10.5 points on his last final shot, the young Russian athlete moved atop of the podium with a final score of 209.3 points, leaving Emmons in second with 208.4 points.

Following them, the Czech Republic's two-time Olympian Tomas Jerabek (42) secured Bronze with 186.6 points, and claimed the first of the two Rio 2016 Olympic quota places up for grabs.

 

The 2000 Olympic Silver medallist Toben Grimmel of Denmark (39) grabbed the second Olympic quota, as he finished in fourth place with 165.8 points leaving Norway's Ole Kristian Bryhn (26) behind him, in fifth place, with 144.9 points.

 

“I feel really great because this is my first final and my first medal in a world cup stage, it couldn't end up in a better way.” Grigoryan said after the match.

 

“During the qualifications, I was convinced I could make it into the final. And as I went through the match, I realized I could event win it. That's my way: I move on step by step.” He added.

 

“I was not stressed too much by the fact that I was competing shoulder and shoulder with an Olympic Champion. We're all humans, we can all win or lose a match.”

 

“My parents were both professional shooters of the Soviet Union team.” Grigoryan said, explaining how he got into the sport. “Shooting sport is a family thing. My dream is off course to participate in the Olympic Games. I shoot all rifle events, but the 50m Prone is definitely my favourite.”

 

Grigoryan teammate Fedor Vlasov (31) placed in sixth with 122.9 points, followed by the winner of the last two world cup stages, Michael Mcphail of USA (33), who took seventh place with 102.1 points. Great Britain's Kenneth Parr (26) closed the final match in eighth and last place, with 80.9 points, missing the Olympic quota (Jerabek, Grimmel and Parr were indeed the only three athletes eligible to win the two quotas, today, as all other finalists had already won one, or their countries had already reached the maximum number of quotas allowed per nation.)

 

The 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men final will close Day-5 of the ISSF World Cup in Gabala, later on this afternoon, at 14.30 (GMT+5). The final will be broadcasted live on www.issf-sports.org