International Olympic Committee : News

Golden smile for Martynov - London 2012 - Shooting

8/3/2012 12:00:00 AM

The 44-year-old marksman from Belarus already had two bronze medals to show for his previous five appearances at the Olympic Games.

Martynov, dubbed 'the man who does not smile', outclassed the rest of the field at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich to get his hands on gold.

He scored perfect 600 in qualifying and increased his lead in the final, not missing a single bullseye and nailing one perfect 10.9, to set a new world record of 705.5.

Martynov was a massive 4.3 points ahead of Belgium's Lionel Cox, who took silver with Rajmond Debevec of Slovenia winning bronze.

Wilson claims Shooting gold - London 2012 - Shooting

8/2/2012 12:00:00 AM

The 25-year-old led from start to finish at the Royal Artillery Barracks.

Wilson, the world record-holder and world number two in the event, was three points ahead going into this afternoon's final after three qualifying rounds in the morning.

And in a tense final shoot-out Wilson missed five shots, including a double as he closed in on gold.

But his opponents could not take advantage and the Briton eventually finished two clear of Sweden's Hakan Dahlby with a total score of 188 out of 200 shots fired.

He smashed the world record in Arizona in March, scoring an incredible 198, and is now Britain's first Shooting medallist since Richard Faulds won gold in the same event in Sydney 12 years ago.

Wilson needed one hit from the final two targets but got both before falling to his knees in tears.

A capacity crowd gave the new Olympic Games champion a standing ovation before he climbed into the first row of seats to greet his mother and tearful girlfriend, Michelle.

As he was surrounded by photographers he simply said: 'It's awesome, fantastic.'

Dahlby took silver while, behind the celebrations, Russian Vasily Mosin won bronze after a shoot-off with Kuwaiti Fehaid Aldeehani.

Rhode shoots historic gold - London 2012 - Shooting

7/30/2012 12:00:00 AM

The 33-year-old set a new Olympic record in qualifying, with 74 hits out of 75, and went on to equal her own world record with a perfect 25 in the final for a total of 99 in front of a packed shotgun range at the Royal Artillery Barracks.

It means Rhode is the first USA athlete to win an individual sport medal at five consecutive Olympic Games.

She is a two-time gold medallist in the Double Trap event, in 1996 and 2004, either side of bronze in 2000, and she won silver in the Skeet at Beijing 2008.

This success marked another high in Rhode's amazing career, but she insisted she is far from finished and she now has her shotgun sights set firmly on Rio 2016 - and beyond.

'I do not see myself quitting any time soon,' Rhode said.

'I'm looking forward to 2016 and a few more after that. The oldest Olympic medallist was a shooter and he was 72, so I still have a few more in me.'

Ning Wei added to China's growing medal haul by taking silver while Slovakia's Danka Bartekova won bronze after a shoot-off with Russia's Marina Belikova.

Moldoveanu takes 10m Air Rifle gold - London 2012 - Shooting

7/30/2012 12:00:00 AM

Moldoveanu held his nerve with a final shot of 10.3 to hold off his rival, who finished just 0.6 behind.

The duo both topped the qualification by equalling the Olympic record and swapped top spots in the final a number of times before Moldoveanu prevailed.

Behind Campriani, Gagan Narang won a bronze medal for India, which was some consolation for the hundreds of Indian supporters crammed into the rifle range after Abhinav Bindra's early exit.

Bindra won India's first individual gold medal at Beijing 2008 four years ago but could only finish 16th in qualifying.

Earlier, Great Britain marksman James Huckle missed out on a place in the final in front of another sell-out crowd at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich.

He was eventually placed 24th, while the qualification round was won by Campriani, the world number one.

Former Olympic 50m Air Rifle champion Matt Emmons of the USA admitted he is struggling to recapture his form after a score of 590 left him ranked 35th.

'My head's working pretty good but my body's not listening,' he said.

'I'm shooting okay but the scores you need to make the final, around 596, has been around my top hit for a long time.

'It's been coming together over this last month or so but it's still not as consistent as I'd like it to be.'

China's Yi Siling wins first gold medal of London 2012

7/28/2012 1:55:00 PM

The 23-year-old world number one took the Olympic title with her last two shots, finishing on a total of 502.9 points as Poland's Sylwia Bogacka claimed the silver medal and Yu Dan of China finished in bronze-medal position.

Bogacka had been leading until the eighth attempt of the 10-shot final, when a wayward effort handed Yi first place.

"It was very exciting,” said Yi afterwards. “I’m very happy. I'm very grateful to China and to my mother and father who I love very much."

"I am pleased, not nervous like I was in the competition,” she added. "I have been up since 5 this morning. There was a lot of pressure on me."

London’s Olympic shooting venue hits the target

5/2/2012 4:13:00 PM

London’s Olympic shooting venue has successfully staged the ISSF World Cup, as preparations continue for this year’s Olympic Games. The Royal Artillery Barracks hosted more than 800 competitors from 100 countries during the tournament, which ran from 17-28 April, and ISSF Secretary General Franz Schreiber was impressed by the temporary venue, which will host the shooting events during the London 2012 Games.

“If everything worked well at this test event, there should be no problem at the Games,” said Schreiber. “We had more than twice the participants than at the Games time, when 390 shooters will be competing here at the Royal Artillery Barracks venue.

“The test has been successful, the installation proved to be working very well even under the pressure of such a massive event,” he added. “There is still some work to do to tune up the venue, but with more than 90 days to go there should be no problems.”

Fifteen shooting events – the same number that will be staged during London 2012 – were held at the ISSF World Cup, including indoor rifle and pistol events and outdoor shotgun events.

Four temporary indoor ranges have been constructed at the Royal Artillery Barracks for the Olympic pistol and rifle events, while outdoor shotgun ranges have been built for the trap and skeet events. Temporary grandstands have also been constructed at each range.

The ISSF World Cup gave the London 2012 Organsing Committee the chance to test operations ahead of the Games, including scoring and results systems.

The competition saw Russia top the medal standings, with an overall total of six individual medals, including two gold, and four silver.

Singapore 2010 adopts new sport formats

8/12/2010 3:39:00 PM

The first Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Singapore will feature all 26 sports currently on the programme of the London 2012 Olympic Games. What will differ in some cases are the disciplines and format, such as 3 on 3 street basketball, a mixed gender relay in the swimming pool, a medley relay on the track or events in which athletes from different National Olympic Committees compete on the same team. Read on to see what your favourite sports will consist of in Singapore...

Aquatics (diving and swimming)

Aquatics comprises diving and swimming. There will be two diving events for both men and women, 3m springboard and 10m platform. Swimming events include freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly and medley, both individual and relay. As a first, a mixed gender event for 4 x 100m freestyle relay and 4 x 100m medley relay is included.

Archery

Archery will feature individual men, women and mixed team competitions. The distance that athletes will be shooting is 70m.

Athletics

Athletics comprises a total 36 events for both men and women. The track events will include 1000m and 3000m races as well as a 2000m steeplechase and a medley relay. There will be eight field events (four jumps and four throws).

Badminton

Badminton will feature men’s and women’s singles events in Singapore.

Basketball

Basketball 3 on 3 will be played at the YOG. There will be two teams of three players on court at any one time. This fast-paced game is played on a half court, with one basketball hoop. It includes two periods of five minutes each. The winner is the first team to score 33 points, or the team that is leading the game at the end of the fifteen minutes of play.

Boxing

Boxing will feature men’s events. There will be 11 different weight categories, ranging from 48kg to the 91kg+ division.

Canoe-Kayak

Canoe-Kayak will feature four events for men and two for women. Both will race
in head-to-head sprints and obstacle slaloms in the kayak category. The men will also compete in the same events in canoes.

Cycling

The Cycling competition will involve teams. Each team consists of three men and one woman. The three men are required to compete in one discipline each (BMX, MTB and Time Trial), while the woman has to compete in all three disciplines. All male riders also have to compete in the Road Race.

Equestrian

In Equestrian, only the jumping events will take place (team and individual). The Organising Committee will provide the horses, which will be assigned to riders by draw. For the team event, there will be six teams representing each FEI regional zone.

Fencing

Fencing will feature individual competitions in the foil, epée and sabre for men and women, and a mixed team competition.

Football

Football will consist of a six-team competition, representing all continents, for both men and women.

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is split into artistic and rhythmic, as in the Olympic Games. The artistic competition will feature eight individual men’s events and six individual women’s events. The rhythmic competition consists of two events – individual and team – for women.

Handball

Handball is a six-team tournament, representing all continents, for men and for women.

Hockey

Hockey is the same as football and handball – a six-team competition, representing all continents for both men and women.

Judo

There are a total of eight weight categories for both men and women in the Judo competition. There is also a mixed team event.

Modern Pentathlon

The Modern Pentathlon competition consists of four of the five modern pentathlon disciplines: fencing, swimming, running and shooting. The fifth discipline, riding, will not be competed at Singapore 2010. The run-shoot format will be competed. In the Combined event, laser shooting is being used for the first time.

Rowing

Both the men and women will compete in two events in Rowing – single sculls and pairs.

Sailing

The Sailing competition comprises four events, with men and women sailing in either the one person dinghy or the windsurfing.

Shooting

In Shooting, the men and women will compete in both air rifle and air pistol.

Table Tennis

Table tennis will consist of men’s singles, women’s singles and a mixed team competition.

Taekwondo

Taekwondo will see athletes competing in five weight categories per gender.

Tennis

There will be both men’s singles and doubles and women’s singles and doubles in the Tennis tournament.

Triathlon

The Triathlon competition format for individual competitions includes a 750m swim in open water, a 20km cycle ride and a 5km run. The 4 x mixed team relay competition includes a 250m swim in open water, a 7km cycle ride and a 1.7km run.

Volleyball

Volleyball is a six-team men’s and women’s competition.

Weightlifting

Weightlifting sees men competing in six weight categories, while women will compete in five weight categories. The combined results of the Snatch and the Clean & Jerk will produce the champion of each weight category.

Wrestling

The Wrestling competition will see men compete in Greco-Roman (five weight categories) and freestyle (five weight categories) and women in freestyle (four weight categories).