BY JEFF FALK
It wasn’t a shot in the dark by any stretch of the imagination. And it wasn’t a long shot either.
What it was was a sure shot, a true shot, a straight shot.
On Saturday morning at the Royal Artillery Barracks, Lebanon native Jamie Beyerle-Gray grabbed fifth-place hardware in the women’s 10-meter air rifle event at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. Medals go to the top three finishers in each Olympic event.
The gold medal was won by China’s Yin Siling. The medals awarded were the first of the XXX Olympiad.
Siling, the favorite to finish first, was locked in an epic struggle with Sylwia Bogacka of Poland during most of the 40-shot event. But Siling asserted herself late and relegated Bobacka to the silver.
Another Chinese competitor, Dan Yu, copped the bronze medal, while efending Olympic champion Katie Emmons of the Czech Republic finished fourth, a spot ahead of Beyerle-Gray. One of 56 competitors, Gray was the highest finishing shooter from this country.
After compiling a score of 397 in the preliminaries, Beyerle-Gray was one of eight contestants to make it to the finals, but trailed Silling and Bobacka, who posted 399s in the prelims. Gray mustered a score of 102.7 in the ten-shot finals, while Siling counted 103.9.
Gray’s final score of 499.7 left her 1.8 points off the medal stand.
Gray, who also finished fifth in the 10-meter air rifle at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, will also compete in the Olympic shooting’s three-position event, Saturday, August 4th. Gray took fourth in that event in the last Olympics.
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