Shooting at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 50 metre rifle three positions

The men's 50 metre rifle three positions competition at the 2004 Summer Olympics was held on 22 August at the Markópoulo Olympic Shooting Centre near Athens, Greece.[1]

Men's 50 metre rifle three positions at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Venue	Markópoulo Olympic Shooting Centre
Date	22 August 2004
Competitors	40 from 29 nations
Winning score	1264.5
Medalists
Jia Zhanbo  China Michael Anti  United States Christian Planer  Austria

Shooting at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Qualification
Rifle
50 m rifle three positions	men	women
50 m rifle prone	men
10 m air rifle	men	women
Pistol
50 m pistol	men
25 m pistol		women
25 m rapid fire pistol	men
10 m air pistol	men	women
Shotgun
Trap	men	women
Double trap	men	women
Skeet	men	women
Running target
10 m running target	men

The event consisted of two rounds: a qualifier and a final. In the qualifier, each shooter fired 120 shots with a .22 Long Rifle at 50 metres distance. 40 shots were fired each from the standing, kneeling, and prone positions. Scores for each shot were in increments of 1, with a maximum score of 10.

The top 8 shooters in the qualifying round moved on to the final round. There, they fired an additional 10 shots, all from the standing position. These shots scored in increments of .1, with a maximum score of 10.9. The total score from all 130 shots was used to determine the final ranking.

23-year-old U.S. shooter Matthew Emmons commanded his lead throughout the rifle three positions finale for a possible historic small-bore double at these Games, until he aimed at the wrong target on his final shot, as a result of a crossfire and a nullified score, that stumbled him down the leaderboard to a disastrous eighth with 1257.4. Emmons' costly mistake thereby upgraded Chinese shooter Jia Zhanbo to an Olympic gold with a score of 1264.5.[2][3] The silver medal was awarded to Emmons' fellow marksman Michael Anti at 1263.1, while Austria's Christian Planer, whose target Emmons hit, held off a ferocious challenge from Slovenia's world record holder and defending Olympic champion Rajmond Debevec by a thin 0.2-point margin to take the bronze at 1262.8.[3][4]