Italian marksman Niccolo “Nicco” Campriani won his first Olympic gold medal when he took the men's 50m rifle 3 positions at the Royal Artillery Barracks on Monday ahead of Kim Jonghyun (KOR), who took silver and Matthew Emmons (USA) bronze.
The world No.1 in this event, Campriani performed in near perfect style, scoring the maximum 100 points twice in the one-of-four qualification series in the prone and kneeling positions, and a best of 99 in the standing position.
He completed the session by setting the Olympic record of 1180 points and qualified first to the final by a massive eight points margin to next best Emmons on 1172.
Campriani then shot comfortably in the 10-shots final round and enjoyed his big moment in the fully packed hall, tallying a total score of 1278.5 which is also the final Olympic record in the event.
This is the second Olympic medal for Campriani at the London 2012 Olympic Games - he collected silver in the men's 10m air rifle last Monday - and he also became the first Italian shooter to win Olympic gold in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions event.
"I had everything to lose. I worked really hard before the competition and there were a lot of expectations on me, which made things hard. The last 20 shots kneeling were really difficult. There were a lot of heart beats and I was shaking." Campriani said.
Emmons shot brilliantly in the seventh (10.7 out of possible 10.9 points), eighth (10.6) and ninth (10.5) shots of the final and was on track for second place, but could only manage 7.6 with his final attempt to allow Kim (1272.5), who performed best in the final, to snatch silver ahead of him.
At Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, EMMONS was one shot away from the gold medal, but both times blew his chance and finished out of the medals. This time around his final shot was at least good enough to win him bronze with 1271.3.
"I am very happy. I have three silver medals in international events - I am eager now to go on and get gold." Silver medalist Kim said.
"I thought my Olympic winning days were over and I am going to enjoy being back on the podium. I am happy with the Bronze." Emmons commented.