Down to last shot again, Matt Emmons earns bronze

LONDON -- American shooter Matt Emmons has a history at the Olympics, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

In 2004 in Athens, Emmons was leading the 50-meter three-position rifle competition with one shot left when he shot at the wrong target. No medal.

In 2008 in Beijing, he again was leading with one shot left, but the gun fired before he was squared up with the target. No medal.

Monday in the 50-meter three-position rifle competition, he was down to his last shot for a silver medal. Bad shot. But not that bad. He ended up with the bronze.

“Today was one of the hardest matches I’ve ever shot,” Emmons said. Everything “was riding on that last shot. I can’t run away” from his failures on the last shot. “That’s just what everyone talks about.”

It was not Emmons’ first medal. He won gold in Athens and silver in Beijing in the 50-meter prone rifle.

Niccolo Campriani of Italy won the gold and Kim Jonghyun of South Korea got the silver.

In the men’s trap, the gold was won by Giovanni Cernogoraz of Croatia followed by Massimo Fabbrizi of Italy and Fehaid Aldeehani of Kuwait.

Cycling: Sarah Hammer stands in second place and in strong medal contention after the first three races in the women’s Omnium. The remaining races — three-kilometer individual pursuit, 10-kilometer scratch race and 500-meter time trial — will be Tuesday. The men’s sprint was won by Jason Kenny of Britain, who beat Gregory Bauge of France in the gold-medal race. Shane Perkins of Australia got the bronze.

Diving: The U.S. is giving a solid performance in the men’s three-meter springboard heading into Tuesday’s semifinals and finals. Troy Dumais is in third place and Chris Colwill is seventh. Ilya Zakharov of Russia leads after the preliminary round, followed by He Chong of China.

Equestrian: Another gold for the Brits, this time in team show jumping. It required a jumpoff to determine the winner, and the Netherlands had to settle for silver. The bronze went to Saudi Arabia, which was leading after the first day of competition. It was the first gold in show jumping for Britain since 1952 in Helsinki. The U.S. team of Rich Fellers, Reed Kessler, Beezie Madden and McLain Ward finished sixth.

Field hockey: The U.S. women slipped to the bottom of their group with a 1-4 record after getting thrashed by South Africa, 7-0. South Africa is also 1-4 but has a better goal differential.

Sailing: The two Laser competitions wrapped up Monday with no U.S. medals. In the women’s Laser Radial, Xu Lijia of China got the gold with Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands getting the silver and Evi Van Acker of Belgium the bronze. Paige Railey of the U.S. finished eighth. The Laser was won by Tom Slingsby of Australia followed by Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus and Rasmus Myrgren of Sweden. Rob Crane was 29th. In incomplete racing, the men’s 470 boat of Stuart McNay and Graham Biehl sits in 17th place after eight races. Heading into the medal racing, the U.S. boat of Ana Tunnicliffe, Debbie Capozzi and Molly O’Bryan Vandemoer is in fourth. The U.S. is in 15th place in the 49ers class after 14 races.

Synchronized swimming: It’s all but over in the duet competition with one day to go. The Russian pair of Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina have an almost unbeatable lead of four points. The U.S. team of Mary Killman and Mariya Koroleva advanced to the finals. They are 10th of 12 teams.

Table tennis: As might have been predicted, China has the chance to sweep all four gold medals in this sport. Both the men and women advanced to the team finals. On Tuesday, the Chinese women’s team will play Japan and the men will play South Korea for the gold Wednesday.

john.cherwa@latimes.com