Silver and Bronze Medals in Beijing Prone

[USA Shooting]

Tamas Takes Silver, McPhail Earns Bronze in Men’s Prone at Beijing World Cup

BEIJING, China (April 18, 2008) – The U.S. Shooting Team added two more medals to their Beijing World Cup collection Friday, with Tom Tamas and Michael McPhail taking home the silver and bronze medals respectively in the Men’s 50m Prone Rifle event.

U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) member Tom Tamas (Columbus, Ga.) entered the final tied for first place at 599 with Australia’s Warren Potent. Tamas, who is a world record holder in this event, was clearly a favorite going into the match. Tamas’s USAMU teammate Michael McPhail (Darlington, Wis.) was tied for third place with Ukraine’s Jury Sukhorukov with a score of 598 following the qualification round.



During what may have been one of the most exciting prone finals ever fired, Tamas and Potent swapped leads with nearly every shot and the crowd noisily greeted each change. On the last shot, Tamas was in the lead by .1 point but Potent nailed a 10.7 to tie the world record, while Tamas dropped to second, earning the silver medal with a 10.1, finishing with a final of 105.3 for a total score of 704.3 to Potent’s final of 105.8 and total of 704.8.



Questioned on whether he listened to the announced scores during the final, Tamas replied that of course he is human, and knew when Potent shot a 10.7 to his a 10.6, but it was immediately pushed aside as he concentrated on his next shot.



In the meantime, McPhail who started one point behind almost caught both Tamas and Potent with his final of 106.1. McPhail held on to third place, finishing with a total score of 704.1 to claim the bronze. Sukhorukov finished a distant 3.2 points behind in fourth place with a final of 103.5 and a total score of 701.5.

Artur Aivazian from Ukraine finished in fifth place with a total score 701.0 points. Sergei Kovalenko of Russia, Bjoem Pantzar of Sweden and Maik Eckhardt of Germany finished sixth to eighth with a total score of 700.1 points, 699.8 points and 699.7 points respectively.

Matt Emmons (Browns Mills, N.J.), the 2004 Olympic gold medalist in this event, fired a 596, just barely missing the cut-off to compete in the final.



The "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 ISSF World Cup is being held at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall and Beijing Shooting Range Clay-Target Field (CTF). Competition continues Friday with the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol final and the event will conclude on Sunday with the Men’s 50m 3 Position Rifle and Men’s Skeet finals.

This event is the only shooting competition where athletes will be able to test their shooting skills at the new Olympic shooting venues prior to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The Beijing Games will be held August 8–24, with the shooting portion of the competition taking place August 9-17.

More than 1200 shooters from 92 countries are competing in the Beijing World Cup, which makes this competition the largest shooting event ever in China. Thirty-five Olympians and Olympic hopefuls from the U.S. will be competing in 15 different men’s and women’s events during this nine day competition.

For complete results from all of the events at the "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 ISSF World Cup, please visit www.issf.tv or www.shooting2008.org/en/