The Italian shooter rocked the 50m Rifle Prone final, securing Gold at the last shot in his “backup” event “The last shot nightmare is over” said the Italian shooter, who had missed an Olympic final and a World Record at the last trigger pull.
“I won it at the last shot, at the last shot!” said Niccolò Campriani, the Italian shooter who won today’s 50m Rifle Prone Men event closing the match with an outstanding 10.8 shot “I had missed the 2008 Olympic Final and a World Record at the last Europeans, due to weak last shots. Even here, in Fort Benning, I missed the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Silver medal at the last shot, just a couple of days ago” Continued Campriani, surrounded by his Italian teammate, celebrating his first ISSF Gold medal and his personal best in this event.
“After the Games and the Europeans, it has been hard to deal with last shots. Today’s will help me to do better in future,” said the 22-year old shooter “I really did not expect this medal. Prone is my backup event, I am only ranked 93rd in the World. Today’s is my personal best score!”
After yesterday’s elimination match, Campriani squeezed into the competition in last, building then his victory during the competitions. “It’s kind of funny: I was the last after the elimination, I was feeling confident. As I was not thinking about the final, I made it!”
Entering the medal match in first place, with a qualification score of 599 points and one point of advantage on his followers, the Italian athlete led the round from the first to the last shot, keeping his opponents behind him by a few tenths.
Right before the last shot, he only had 0.1 points of advantage on the home champion Eric Uptagrafft, and therefore the tenth and last final shot turned out to be determinant: “I scored a 10.8 – said Campriani smiling after the final - winning my first ISSF Gold where I less expected it!” Nothing was left to do for USA's Uptagrafft, who finished in second grabbing Silver with 702.8 points after firing a 10.5.
Climbing to the top of the podium with a total score of 703.2 points, Campriani started looking forward to the next matches “The World Championship, first of all. I will keep on training here in USA” concluded the Italian shooter, who studies Engineering at the West Virginia University, and uses to train with the American team “I have been here for nine months, now. It’s great to have a chance to train and compete in the US national matches. Being on today’s podium with Matt and Eric is a great honour for me.”
The home Champion, Matthew Emmons, the 2004 Olympic Gold and 2008 Olympic Silver medallist, ended up in third place with a total score of 702.1 points. Qualified in second with 598 points, the American shooter secured Bronze after shooting 104.1 points through the final, finishing just 0.7 points behind his teammate Uptagrafft.