Legendary Rhode with Skeet Bronze; Prone Rifle Recap & Saturday Preview
When is bronze as good as gold? Look it up in the future and we’re pretty sure you will be able to bookmark August 12, 2016. That’s the date when 37-year-old Kim Rhode became the first Summer Olympian ever to win six medals in six straight Olympic Games. A historic moment for Rhode, and a historic moment for the Shooting Sports.
Trending. Done right, it’s a popular pursuit of fame for glory-seekers. It’s something Rhode will now be doing well into a third decade as America’s shotgun queen. Since winning Olympic gold as a 17-year-old in Atlanta, Rhode’s journey now comes full circle having perhaps experienced the most trying four years of her Olympic pursuit. Pregnancy and childbirth created a whole host of health complications for Rhode. Looking at her son, Carter, in the stands on this day and seeing him waving down to mommy as she was about to step on the podium a record sixth-straight time, it was at that very moment that the pain of doing so vanished and that familiar feeling of accomplishment set in.
You can view the FINAL right here: http://stream.nbcolympics.com/womens-skeet-final
Here’s how the journalists on-hand helped record the historic day.
USA Today – Kim Rhode wins bronze, makes Olympic history
LA Times – L.A.’s most unsung Olympian continues to excel in her sixth Olympics
Associated Press – Kim Rhode wins bronze in skeet
First-time Olympian Morgan Craft (Muncy Valley, Pennsylvania) nearly made it an even greater day for USA Shooting. She survived a three-person shoot-off to advance to the semifinals. She’d face another three-person shoot-off after 16 targets along with Rhode and China’sWei Meng. She’d fall to the two skeet shooting greats, but not before earning the admiration of her teammates and a legion of fans during her quick rise to stardom.
“This was the hardest match I’ve ever been through,” Craft admitted. I think leading up, I did absolutely everything I could to train and be able to put 100% out there on the field for our country. I think in the end, I just put a little too much pressure on myself, and that’s a great life lesson. You just have to trust yourself.”
A pair of Italians would battle in the gold-medal match with Diana Bacosi defeating Chiara Cainero, 15 to 14 hits.
Men’s Prone Recap
It was a difficult day in Men’s 50m Prone Rifle Friday with Michael McPhail (Darlington, Wisconsin) and David Higgins (San Clemente, California).In his second Olympic appearance, McPhail finished 19th with a 622.0, narrowly missing out on the finals by 2.8 points. Higgins struggled in his Olympic debut to a 617.7 to finish 40th.
It was a tricky swirling wind, described as left-to-right and coming back around, and got worse throughout the 50-minute affair. Those that did well made the adjustments or quickened their pace.
Three-time Olympic medalist Matt Emmons, who will be shooting Three-Position Rifle on Sunday, described the conditions McPhail and Higgins had to deal with today. “The wind flows like water. If you think of it as a river and how water flows over barriers and rocks or whatever, you can get an idea of what it is going to do on the range. So you can think about, ‘Okay, I’ve got to watch out for this and think about that’ and you come up with a plan and execute it.”
Henri Junghaenel secured gold in the event, pocketing Germany’s second rifle shooting gold medal in two days. The 28-year old German athlete led throughout the whole final, zeroing in after a disappointing qualification (624.8 points, eighth place) to finish atop of the podium with 209.5 points (a new Final Olympic Record. Junghaenel upset Republic of Korea’s Kim Jonhyun, now a two-time Olympic silver medalist. Russia’s Kirill Grigorian pocketed the bronze.
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Men’s Skeet
Lurking just outside the top-10, two-time Olympic gold medalist Vincent Hancock (Eatonton, Georgia) after a 71/75 on day one of Men’s Skeet. He’s 12th currently and will be geared up to make a run at current leaders in a quest to become just the fourth American to earn three gold medals in the same individual event. Sweden’s Marcus Svensson was the only competitor to fire through a perfect three rounds. Four other athletes dropped just one.
Frank Thompson (Alliance, Nebraska) dropped six targets for a 69 and a 19th-place current standing.
Competitors will see 50 more qualifying targets Saturday with the top-six finishers advancing to the semifinals.
Day 2 Qualification – 8:30 – 11:30 a.m. ET
Finals – 2:00 p.m. | FINALS LIVESTREAM starting at 2:00 p.m. ET
“Spend more time with your family and friends, whether it be outside, hunting, at the shooting range or around the table, savoring all life has to offer.”
Rapid Fire Pistol
Through stage one of Rapid Fire Pistol, Keith Sanderson (Colorado Springs, Colorado) sits in good position after scoring 290 and is ninth. Germany’s Christian Reitz, the current world-record holder, is first with a 596. Emil Milev (Temple Terrace, Florida) is in 20th-place after a 284.
Rapid fire is the fast-paced men’s pistol event that is not only exciting to watch, but also exciting to shoot. The event is shot over a distance of 82 feet in standing positions at five targets at various speeds beginning with eight seconds for five shots speeding up to four seconds for five shots. Shooters use a .22-caliber pistol with a maximum weight of three pounds. The center of each target is positioned at four and a half feet above the floor and its total diameter measures less than 20 inches which is about the size of a Domino’s large pizza. The diameter of the tenth ring measures four inches which is about the size of a softball.
This event is shot over the course of two days with the first thirty shots being fired the first day, and thirty more being fired the second day. There are two series (a series containing five shots fired at five targets) shot at eight seconds, then two series shot at six seconds, and finally two series shot at four seconds per day. The scores from each day are combined to give the maximum score possible of 600. Scores of 580 and higher are expected to be in Finals.
The world record is a nearly perfect 593/600 points scored by Christian Reitz of Germany last year. The gold medalist from the 2012 London Olympics, Leuris Pupo of Cuba, will be defending his title in Rio. Fusheng Zhang of China is currently ranked number one in the world, and based on his scores this last year, is sure to be successful at this Olympics.
Format: The top six athletes from the qualification phase advance to the final match, where they can shoot up to eight 5-shots series. The six finalists start the match with 0 points: the qualification score is not carried forward into the final round. In the final round the scoring system switches from a points system to a hit-or-miss system. In the hit-or-miss system a score of 9.7 or higher is counted as a hit, while a score of 9.6 or lower is counted as a miss. The series begin with four 5-shots series, each to be fired within 4 seconds, followed by four more single 5-shots series. After the fourth series the athlete with the lowest aggregate score is eliminated from the final and places 6th. Any following elimination id determined at the end of each series until the gold and silver medalists are decided by the eighth and conclusive series. If there is a tie for the lowest ranking athlete to be eliminated, the tied athletes will fire additional tie-breaking series until the tie is broken.
Day 1 Qualification – 11:15 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. ET
Day 2 Qualification – 8:00 – 10:15 a.m. ET
Finals – 11:30 a.m. | FINALS LIVESTREAM starting at 11:30 a.m. ET
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Mia Anstine is an outdoor writer, licensed outfitter, hunting guide, life coach, keynote speaker, and range safety officer, firearms instructor, and archery instructor. She is the founder of MAC Outdoors and Host of the MAC Outdoors Podcast.
Mia Anstine strives to encourage others to get outside, hunt, fish, shoot, and survive life with others in a positive way.
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