Shooting at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's 300 metre free rifle

The men's 300 metre free rifle was one of the five sport shooting events on the Shooting at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. The second rifle event and last of the shooting events, the free rifle was begun on 11 April. Each marksman fired 40 shots, in four strings of ten. 25 men entered the event, though only 20 actually competed. They represented three nations. Frangoudis led after the first day, but when the event was continued on 12 April, Orphanidis took the lead and held on to win first place. He hit the target 37 times.

Men's 300 metre free rifle
at the Games of the I Olympiad
Georgios Orphanidis (1897)
VenueKallithea shooting range
DatesApril 11–12
Competitors20 from 3 nations
Winning score1583
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Georgios Orphanidis
 Greece
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Ioannis Frangoudis
 Greece
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Viggo Jensen
 Denmark

Background

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This was the only appearance of the men's 300 metre free rifle event without position requirements.[1][2] A three-positions event would be introduced in 1900 (along with team and individual position medals) and held 11 times between then and 1972.[3]

Competition format

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The competition had each shooter fire 40 shots, in 4 strings of 10, at a range of 300 metres. Scoring involved multiplying target hits by points scored in each string.[3]

Schedule

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The free rifle was the last of the shooting events, starting in the afternoon of day 6 of competition. It went until it was too dark to shoot, then was postponed until the next morning. It finished at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Precise start times for each session are not known.

Date Time Round
Gregorian Julian
Saturday, 11 April 1896
Sunday, 12 April 1896
Saturday, 30 March 1896
Sunday, 31 March 1896
Final

Results

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Rank Shooter Nation Score Hits 1 2 3 4
  Georgios Orphanidis   Greece 1,583 37 328 520 420 315
  Ioannis Frangoudis   Greece 1,312 31 470 192 440 210
  Viggo Jensen   Denmark 1,305 31 392 423 280 210
4 Anastasios Metaxas   Greece 1,102 Unknown
5 Pantelis Karasevdas   Greece 1,039 Unknown
6–18 Antelothanasis   Greece Unknown
Georgios Diamantis   Greece Unknown'
Alexios Fetsios   Greece Unknown
Karakatsanis   Greece Unknown
Hatzidakis   Greece Unknown
Nikolaos Levidis   Greece Unknown
Sidney Merlin   Great Britain Unknown
Xenon Mikhailidis   Greece Unknown
Moustakopoulos   Greece Unknown
Panagiotis Pavlidis   Greece Unknown
Alexandros Theofilakis   Greece Unknown
Ioannis Theofilakis   Greece Unknown
Nikolaos Trikoupis   Greece Unknown
Leonidas Langakis   Greece DNF
Ioannis Vourakis   Greece DNF

References

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  1. ^ "Historical Results". ISSF. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  2. ^ Official Report, part 2, p. 94.
  3. ^ a b "Free Rifle, Three Positions, 300 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 10 December 2020.