GB's James Huckle and Jonathan Hammond both failed to make the final of the men's 50m rifle prone.
Huckle, Hammond fail to make final of men's 50m rifle prone
Great Britain shooters James Huckle and Jonathan Hammond both failed to make the final of the men's 50m rifle prone on Friday.
Huckle, 22, from Essex, could not emulate his room-mate Peter Wilson - who gripped the nation on Thursday when he won gold in the double trap - shooting a below-par 591 out of 600 in qualifying.
Hammond, 32, who was born in Aberdeen but now lives in West Virginia, fared a little better by shooting 593, but he was still two points short of making the shoot-off for Friday afternoon's final.
And they were a long way behind Sergei Martynov from Belarus, who equalled the word record with a perfect round of 600 to lead by one from Belgium's Lionel Cox going into the final.
Huckle admitted he had nobody to blame but himself as his technique began to desert him after the opening round.
"It was tough today," he said. "Conditions-wise it was probably one of the best days we've seen on the range, although the wind is flicking about it never got too much strength up, especially at the start of the match.
"I started with 100 which was a great start and I felt solid, but I had a few shots that didn't go where I thought they would go and I could feel my technique slipping a bit.
"I tried to stay calm but if you start to make mistakes you get punished pretty quickly. You have to relax and keep focused, but I didn't know what was wrong with my technique so I couldn't correct it enough.
"So I stood up, went back down, refocused and I was absolutely fine. I ended with 100, 99, 99 which is a more than respectable finish - if I did that earlier it would have been fine."
Tough conditions
Hammond, who came 34th at the Beijing Games four years ago, found the conditions tougher.
He said: "I can definitely shoot a lot higher but the conditions were really tricky out there, the atmosphere, the environment, the wind.
"It's a solid score and I'm fairly happy with my own performance, and it's a fantastic experience being out there in that environment.
"I probably made a few mistakes, got the wind wrong a couple times, but I'm only two points away from the final, it's all part of the learning curve and something I can build on."
Both shooters get another crack at glory when they go in the rifle three positions, prone, kneeling and standing, on Monday.
Gold eventually went to 44-year-old Sergei Martynov of Belarus, who outclassed the rest of the field at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich to finally get his hands on gold on his sixth appearance at an Olympics.
He scored perfect 600 in qualifying and increased his lead in the final, not missing a single bullseye and nailing one perfect 10.9, to set a new world record of 705.5.
Later on Friday Leuris Pupo of Cuba pulled off a shock to win gold in the men's rapid fire pistol.
World number one Alexei Klimov of Russia was the clear favourite going into the final, in which competitors must reel off five shots at five targets in the space of four seconds.
Klimov had broken his own world record in qualifying with a score of 592, and opened up this afternoon's final with a perfect five.
But his form suddenly deserted him at the wrong time and a series of low scores, including a two, saw him eliminated after round six.
Instead Pupo, 35, competing at his fourth Olympic Games, grabbed Cuba's first gold of London 2012.
