Aug. 6, 2006
By Matias Saari, Fairbanks Daily Newsminer
Published August 6, 2006
Posted in Sports
Former Alaska Nanooks rifle shooters Jamie Beyerle and Matt Emmons aren't guaranteed spots in the 2008 Olympics, but at least now they're guaranteed decent shots for them.
By earning Olympic Games quotas for the U.S. Shooting Team, Beyerle and Emmons had the best results among locally-affiliated athletes at the sport's world championships that concluded Saturday in Zagreb, Croatia.
Beyerle, who shot for the Nanooks from 2002-06, achieved an Olympic quota by virtue of her sixth-place score of 582 (out of 600) in the three-position event at the 49th International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Shooting Championships, held July 21-Aug. 5. Emmons earned a quota by placing fifth in three-position with 1,169 of a possible 1,200 points.
The quotas mean the United States has qualified two shooters in three-position for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, but does not mean Beyerle and Emmons will automatically fill those slots, said Nanooks head rifle coach Dan Jordan. U.S. Olympic shooters will instead be determined through a future tryout.
Beyerle, of Lebanon, Pa., also placed seventh in the prone event with a score of 594, helping the U.S. team to fourth place in the event.
"For her to get that quota, it takes off a lot of pressure for the next couple years," said Jordan. "Top 10 is doing real well. We would have liked to have her in the medals, but a quota spot is the next best thing."
Emmons, a Nanooks shooter from 1999-2003, also placed 17th in air rifle with 594 points and 31st in the highly-competitive prone event with 593 points, as the U.S. placed first as a team. Emmons won the 2004 Olympic gold medal in prone and had a second gold all but locked up in three-position before firing at the wrong target on the final shot.
Emmons' 31st place in the world championships was somewhat surprising but the New Jersey native, who now trains at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., in still a force, said Jordan.
"He's one of the top shooters in the world. He's gonna be tough to beat come Beijing," said Jordan.
Current Nanook and Wharton, Texas native Matt Rawlings, who will be a senior this upcoming season, placed 48th with 590 points in air rifle.
"A 590 is still pretty respectable," said Jordan, adding that 598 won the competition and 595 was necessary to make the eight-shooter final.
Incoming Nanooks freshman Patrik Sartz, shooting for his native Sweden, placed 71st in air rifle with 586 points. Sartz is the junior European record-holder in air rifle and Jordan says he expects him to make an "immediate impact" on the Nanooks' squad.
"He kind of struggled a little bit over there," said Jordan, adding that the world meet is contested just once every four years. "The world championships is a huge match. It's a lot of pressure. It's a whole `nother realm."
Another Swede, former Nanook Per Sandberg, placed fifth in the 300-meter three-position event with 1,173 points and 16th in the prone with 595 to help the Swedes to a silver medal.
The Nanooks rifle team will begin practice in defense of its 2006 NCAA national championship around Aug. 25, said Jordan, a former Nanooks shooter who's entering his second year at the coaching helm.
Staff writer Matias Saari can be reached at 459-7591 and msaari@newsminer.com.
