USA's Emmons claims the Gold at the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men final, Bangkok's last match

The American shooter beat Ukraine’s Kulish in the last medal match of the 2016 ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Bangkok (THA). The People’s Republic of China finished atop of the overall medals standings of the competition. The ISSF World Cup Series moves now on to Nicosia, Cyprus.

The 2016 ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Bangkok finished in style, with an exciting 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men final, today.

London 2012 Olympic Bronze medalist Matthew Emmons (34) finished in the spotlights, winning the match with a score of 458.6 points.

Ranked second in the world in this event, Emmons closed the Kneeling series in third place with 151.7 points, and then climbed up in second after the Prone series with 307.8 points.

Fighting neck and neck against the 2010 Youth Olympic Games bronze medalist Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine (22) through the Standing series, Emmons moved into the lead and gained a narrow margin of 1.7 points on his opponent before the last shot.

Closing the match with a 9.6, the American athlete left no chances to Kulish, securing the Gold and leaving the Ukrainian shooter in second with 456.8 points.

"You never know what’s going to happen at the last shot, but I have been working on that," said Emmons. "As I get older and shoot more finals, I can never say that it gets easier. It’s always challenging when you’re standing up there, going for the medals. Luckily, recently I have been shooting a lot of good shots," continued the US athlete, who had won last year’s ISSF World Cup Final title in Munich.

Emmons is now working on the road leading to Rio 2016, "every cycle you learn what was good and what was bad. I wouldn’t say there’s anything particularly unique that I am doing to prepare for Rio. There’s pressure on everyone going into the Olympics. I want to go there, and just be prepared and feel that I am in control of what I am doing. I never would say that I am going to go there to win, because at the highest level there are so many guys that are very very good."

The 2006 Junior World Champion, Cao Yifei of the People’s Republic of China (27) joined Emmons and Kulish on the podium, collecting Bronze with 445.6 points.

The 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men Final concluded the 2016 ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Bangkok, Thailand.

The competition, which started on the 1st of March, saw 330 athlete from 49 countries competing in the 10 Rifle and Pistol Olympic shooting events at the NSSAT Shooting Range of Bangkok.

The People’s Republic of China finished atop of the medals standings, collecting an impressive number of 12 medals, including 5 Gold, 3 Silver and 4 Bronze. USA followed in second, with 1 Gold (won by Emmons, today) and 1 Silver medals, while Brazil, Denmark, Germany and India all secured 1 Gold medal each. A new Junior Final World Record was scored during the competition by Yang Haoran of the People’s Republic of China (209.6 points) during the 10m Air Rifle Final.

The ISSF World Cup Series will now move on to Nicosia, Cyprus, where the first ISSF Shotgun World Cup of the season will be held from the 17 through the 25 of March.

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