UAF alum captures gold medal

Submitted by Jamie Schanback
Phone: (907) 474-6805
08/20/04

Former University of Alaska Fairbanks rifle team member Matt Emmons claimed his first Olympic gold medal Aug. 20. The 23-year-old New Jersey resident held off stiff competition from Christian Lusch of Germany, whose own chances of gold disappeared when he shot 9.9 on the last shot of the final competition.

Emmons led after a near-perfect qualifying round of 599 and in the final shot 104.3. He secured the gold medal with bullseye scores of 10.6 in his final two shots. Lusch took the silver medal and the bronze went to Sergei Martynov of Belarus.

Emmons graduated from UAF in 2003 as an accounting major in the School of Management. He was an integral part of the rifle team which won the NCAA national championship all four years he was on the team. The Nanook rifle team has won the NCAA rifle championship seven times, including the last six years in a row.

For more information on Matt Emmons and the U.S. Olympic rifle team visit: www.usashooting.com/usashooting.cfm.

Contact: Jamie Schanback, Interim UAF Sports Information Director at (907) 474-6805 or fnjms4@uaf.edu.