"It's not how you win but how you handle the loss that makes you a champion", said Niccolo Campriani, after he won the gold in the 50-metre rifle 3 position yesterday at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Greenwich, England.
After taking silver in last Monday's 10-metre rifle and ending with a disappointing eighth place in Friday's 50-metre prone, Campriani showed how he handles loss—with a nearly flawless win.
Campriani scored eight points higher than any other competitor in the morning's qualifying round, setting a new Olympic record with a qualifying score of 1180, including a near-perfect score in the four series of prone shooting.
He finished the final round with a comfortable six-point lead and a new Olympic record for highest combined final score, while his nearest rivals, Korean Kim Jonghyun and American Matthew Emmons, decided the silver and bronze in a shootout.
In the last shooting event of the 2012 Olympics, the men's trap shooting final, Massimo Fabbrizi narrowly missed the gold. He tied Croatian Giovanni Cernogoraz in the final round, but missed one of the six shots in the shoot-off for first place. Fabbrizi's silver was the fifth Olympic medal in shooting—all gold or silver—for Italy this year.
Earlier in the afternoon at the indoor Olympic facilities in Greenwich, Matteo Morandi won Italy's first medal in gymnastics during this Olympics, taking the bronze in the men's rings.
