The scene was reminiscent to the one four years ago.

American shooter Matthew Emmons just needed a 6.6 to be crowned in the men's 50-meter rifle three positions at the Beijing Olympic Games.

But he made a 4.4.

Gone was the gold, even the silver and the bronze.

The champion became Chinese shooter Qiu Jian, with 1272.5 points. Following him was Jury Sukhorukov from Ukraine with 1272.4 and world record holder Rajmond Debevec from Slovenia with 1271.7 points.

Advancing into the final with 1175 points, one point behind the leading Debevec, the 27-year-old American shooter got a 9.7 in the first shot, while the 45-year-old Slovenian shot a surprising 7.7 and was hence dropped to second.

Emmons further enlarged his leading advanteage by making seven of the following eight shots above or equalling 10.

While the 33-year-old Qiu experienced some ups and downs with his scores fluctuating from 8.8 to 10.6. But originally ranked fourth with 1173 points, he managed to climb to the third.

Before the last shot, top four were Emmons, Sukhorukov, Qiu and Debevec, with their gaps 3.3 points, 0.1 points and 1.6 points respectively.

Sukhorukov fired in the last shot, a 9.8.

Debevec made a 10.8.

Qiu, the second to last to open fire, collected a 10.0, surpassing his Ukrainian rival.

It was the moment for Emmons.

Four years ago in Athens, the shooter, with an obvious advantage and was just one shot away from the gold, had his last bullet plunged into another shooter's target and saw the gold won by Chinese shooter Jia Zhanbo.

This time, he needed just a 9.2 to break the Olympic record of 1275.1 by Debevec and a 6.6 to beat Qiu and win the gold, and everyone held breath to see the man staging a comeback.

He fired.

The target was right.

But spectators let out an exclamation.

Like enchanted, he notched up a stunning 4.4 and plunged to the fourth.

After several seconds of bewilderment, audiences cheered and applauded for the lucky Chinese champion, who himself gazed at the screen of score in disbelief.

Emmons threw himself into the arms of his wife Katerina, who just won a gold and a silver from the Beijing Olympics.

(Xinhua News Agency August 17,2008)