U.S. Shooters Take Second Gold Medal

It would’ve been understandable if Matt Emmons had a bad first Olympic experience.

The way things had been going, he seemed destined for that.

First, someone vandalized his good gun in April. Then, while preparing for the men’s 50-meter prone rifle event, he caught a bad cold. Before Friday’s final, his heart was beating so hard he didn’t know whether he could calm himself, hold his rifle straight and shoot accurately.

He did, though. He remained composed and focused. His reward was an Olympic gold medal.

“How’s it supposed to feel?” the New Jersey native asked. “I don’t know. I probably won’t realize it until I get home.”

With a score of 703.3 points, Emmons won the second gold medal of these Olympics for the U.S. shooting team. On Wednesday, Kim Rhode won in the double trap event.

Germany’s Christian Lusch scored 702.2 to win the silver medal Friday, and Sergei Martynov of Belarus won the bronze, repeating his performance at Sydney in 2000.

During an international event in April, Emmons discovered someone had ruined his gun. Assessing the damage, he figured someone had taken a screwdriver to it. He took a shot, and the shell stayed lodged in his gun.

So he had to borrow another.

“This one’s amazing,” he said of the borrowed gun. “It shoots better than the one I have. So it’s a blessing in disguise.”

Emmons became the first American in 40 years to qualify for three Olympic shooting events. He did not reach the final in the air rifle event, but he has a chance to earn another medal in the three-position rifle.

“I’d say I’m pretty confident,” said Emmons, who considers the three-position rifle his best event.

Also on Friday, Lioubov Galkina of Russia won gold in the women’s 50-meter rifle three-position event with an Olympic-record score of 688.4. Valentina Turisini of Italy won silver, and Wang Chengyi of China took bronze.

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ARCHERY

Gold to South Korea

Park Sung-hyun shot a 10 on the last arrow of the women’s team competition, giving South Korea a 241-240 victory over China and its fifth consecutive gold medal in the event.

Taiwan defeated France, 242-228, to win the bronze.

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BADMINTON

South Koreans Win

Kim Dong-moon and Ha Tae-kwon of South Korea won the gold medal in men’s doubles, beating fellow countrymen Lee Dong-soo and Yoo Yong-sung.

Indonesia’s Eng Hian and Flandy Limpele won the bronze medal.

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BASEBALL

Takahashi Leads Japan

Yoshinobu Takahashi had two hits and three runs batted in as Japan routed Canada, 9-1. Tsuyoshi Wada shut out Canada for seven innings, giving up only three hits. In other games, Cuba scored five runs in the third inning in defeating the Netherlands, 9-2.

Claudio Liverziani hit a two-run homer in the top of the ninth to put the Italians ahead, 5-4, and they held on for their first tournament victory. Brett Roneberg hit two solo home runs for Australia in an 11-6 victory over Greece.

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CANOE-KAYAK

Brothers Win Gold

Pavol and Peter Hochschorner took the gold medal again in the men’s doubles canoe slalom, winning by more than three seconds.

The brothers from Slovakia moved smoothly through the white-water course, showing the form that helped them win gold at the Sydney Olympics. Their time was 207.16 seconds, beating Marcus Becker and Stefan Henze of Germany by 3.82.

Jaroslav Volf and Ondrej Stepanek of the Czech Republic took bronze, just under two seconds behind the Germans.

Frenchman Benoit Peschier, who entered the Olympics ranked 12th in the world in the men’s singles kayak slalom, used two clean, fast runs to win gold.

Britain’s Campbell Walsh won silver, and defending world champion Fabien Lefevre of France took bronze.

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CYCLING

Meares Smashes Mark

Anna Meares of Australia, the reigning world champion, won the gold medal in the women’s 500-meter time trial, becoming the first woman to crack the 34-second mark with a blazing 33.952.

Jiang Yonghua of China won silver in 34.112, and Natallia Tsylinskaya of Belarus took bronze in 34.167.

Chris Hoy of Britain won gold in the men’s 1-kilometer time trial with an Olympic-record time of 1:00.711. Arnaud Tournant of France won silver, and Stefan Nimke of Germany took bronze.

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FENCING

Russia Wins Epee Title

Russia used a patient, defensive strategy to defeat top-seeded Germany, 34-28, and retain the women’s team epee title it won in Sydney four years ago.

Laura Flessel-Colovic, the individual silver medalist, helped France take the bronze with a 45-37 victory over Canada.

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JUDO

Japanese Own Event

Keiji Suzuki, in the men’s 100-kilogram (221-pound) category, and Maki Tsukada, in the women’s 78 kilograms (172 pounds), won gold medals to give Japan the Olympic title in eight of 14 events.

Suzuki beat Tamerlan Menov of Russia. Dennis van Der Geest of the Netherlands and Indrek Pertelson of Estonia won bronze.

Tsukada beat Dayma Beltran of Cuba. Sun Fuming of China and Tea Donguzashvili of Russia earned bronze.

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TABLE TENNIS

Two Medals for China

China’s team of Wang Nan and Zhang Yining won the gold medal in women’s doubles, beating Lee Eun-sil and Suk Eun-mi of South Korea, 11-9, 11-7, 11-6, 11-6. Guo Yue and Niu Jianfeng of China won bronze. *

TRAMPOLINE

Dogonadze Wins Gold

Anna Dogonadze of Germany won the women’s competition, scoring 39.60 points to edge reigning world champion Karen Cockburn of Canada. Cockburn, the bronze medalist at Sydney, finished at 39.20. Huang Shanshan of China took bronze.

American Jennifer Parilla finished 14th, not making it out of qualifying after tumbling out of bounds in her second routine.

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VOLLEYBALL

U.S. Falls to Russia

Ekaterina Gamova had 28 points to lead the Russian women’s team to a 20-25, 25-17, 20-25, 25-18, 15-11 victory over the United States.

The Russians (3-1), the defending silver medalists, clinched a spot in the quarterfinals and will finish the pool-play portion of the tournament against China on Sunday.

The Americans (1-3) must beat three-time defending gold medalist Cuba to advance.

Tayyiba Haneef scored 25 points, and Logan Tom had 19 kills to lead the U.S. attack.