Double gold joy for Norway

Friday’s team rifle events both went Norway’s way when both the Norwegian women and men grabbed the gold medals. “We really hadn’t expected this, we did have our sights on a medal, but we never thought we’d shoot better than Germany’s team,” said an overjoyed Stale Larsen, team leader for the Norwegian women’s team.

Celebrating Norwegian golden girls, left to right: Kristina Vestveit, Gyda E Olssen and Hanne Skarpodde. Photo: Stefan Bokvist, PIC WMSC 2008.
Norway’s men, who smashed the world record by 31 points.
Norway’s men, who smashed the world record by 31 points. Photo: Stefan Bokvist, PIC WMSC 2008.
Norway’s men, who smashed the world record by 31 points. Photo: Stefan Bokvist, PIC WMSC 2008.

The Norwegian gold-winning team consisted of Kristina Vestveit, Gyda E Olssen and Hanne Skarpodde. Norway finished on 1,724, two points better than the day’s big surprise Sweden. Germany won the bronze, one point after Sweden.

Smashed world record
The Norwegian men’s team pulverised the world record in military rapid fire rifle over 300 metres. The new record is 1,724 points - 31 points better than the previous record.

“Unbelievable, and better than we expected,” said Vebjørn Berg, one of the four gold medallists.
Norway also held the old record of 1,693 points, from last year’s military world championships.

The three others in the team were Thore Larsen, Hans Krister Waer and Arvid Røjset.  The three best results are counted, so Thore Larsen’s score was not counted. The silver medallists Switzerland, 1,698 points, and Austria, 1,695, both beat the previous record, so the shooting really was at a high standard.
“Conditions today were practically perfect, but it could have been a little warmer,” Vebjørn Berg ended.

Sweden’s team finsihed in a creditable 9th place among the 27 countries on 1,666 points.