Belarus’ Sergei Martynov pauses between shots during qualifiers for the men’s 50-meter rifle prone event at the 2012 Summer Olympics on Friday in London. Martynov of Belarus became the second shooter in Olympic history to score the maximum 600 points in qualifying for the finals. (Rebecca Blackwell / The Associated Press)
Army Staff Sgt. Michael McPhail barely missed qualifying for finals of the men’s 50m rifle prone Friday at the London Olympics, finishing ninth with a score of 595. Army Sgt. 1st Class Eric Uptagrafft finished 16th with a 594 in the same round.
Sergei Martynov of Belarus set a world record in the event’s finals as he won the gold medal he had been looking for at six Olympics, The Associated Press reported.
Martynov became the second shooter in Olympic history to score the maximum 600 points in qualification, and went on to score a total of 705.5 points, beating the 12-year-old best mark from Germany’s Christian Klees by 0.7.
Lionel Cox of Belgium won silver for his first medal at a major competition and Rajmond Debevec of Slovania took bronze.
Finally, Army Sgt. 1st Class Keith Sanderson finished 14th in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol qualification. Leuris Pupo of Cuba went on to win the gold in the event, the first major championship of his career, according to AP.
Pupo, whose only previous victory came at a World Cup event in Buenos Aires in 1998, scored 34 shots in the final to beat silver medalist Vijay Kumar of India by four shots. Ding Feng of China won bronze with 27 points.
Alexei Klimov of Russia set a world record in qualification but was eliminated in the final after six of the eight series under the new competition format for 25-meter rapid fire pistol.
